


Mort de Rire

by Yilena



Series: MDR [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe, Chatting & Messaging, F/M, Identity Reveal, Minor Character Death, Romance, Slow Burn, Social Media, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 15:11:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19320688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yilena/pseuds/Yilena
Summary: Marinette was a popular streamer name Ladybug, but to her online friends, she was Mari. She kept the two identities apart until a newcomer joins the chat, creating ridiculous misunderstandings and causing everyone to think that she's dating herself. AU.





	Mort de Rire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KimbaSprite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KimbaSprite/gifts).



> KimbaSprite, I hope you enjoy this! This covers MDR two months before the first chapter, all the way up to chapter twenty-two. It's focused more on friendships, a bit of romance, and lots of Luka. It's not required to read the other story at all, so this can be considered a story by itself.

_Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Chat Noir © Thomas Astruc_

“Your keyboard's distracting me.”

Marinette snorted. “As if you're even doing anything right now.”

“I have other things that are more important than you,” Luka lamely replied. “Besides, you need to be nice to me. I'm doing you a favour by keeping you company.”

“You're here because it's two in the morning and you made the mistake of having an energy drink earlier,” she rebutted, continuing to tap away at her keyboard, ever-so-aware that the clicks filled the room when she was quiet.

There wasn't much noise in her apartment otherwise.

Luka's laughter was muffled by what she imagined was him putting a hand over his mouth. “That's not the point at all—”

“Yeah, dude, I'm sure.”

“ _You're_ the one that has work in the morning,” he felt the need to say.

When she had someone to talk to, it wasn't often that she got bored while playing. But to play the same game for hours on end when it was in a low level setting, one where she wouldn't really be entertained by what was happening, so tended to grab onto any chance to talk to Luka while she played at all.

And it just so happened that that day, it was after midnight.

She was more than happy to trade off being grumpy at work the following day, even just for a bit.

“You think I don't know that?” Marinette grumbled, reaching up and adjusting her headphones so they weren't pulling on her hair awkwardly any more. “It's fine, I'll just suffer for a bit and drown myself in free drinks.”

He sighed. “That sounds awful.”

“Yeah, and so do you,” she instantly shot back, no heat to her words.

Luka let out an even more dramatic sight to that. “I know.”

“There, there,” she said. “At least you're aware of your flaws.”

“You're such a caring friend,” he replied flatly. “Thank you, Mari.”

She was smiling, even though he couldn't see it. “You're welcome.”

It was about half an hour before they were both yawning, the noises audible through their microphones. While Marinette didn't have to worry about waking anyone up—able to do whatever she wanted at any time in the night—Luka was the opposite, so he was talking in whispers when it got late.

“I'm dying,” Luka proclaimed.

“Die quietly,” Marinette replied without any hesitation. “I don't want to be blamed for waking your family up.”

His laughter wasn't loud, but it was mostly breathy. “Yes, we can't be having that, can we?”

“Your mother gets very passive-aggressive,” she retorted. “It's really awkward at dinner.”

“The answer to that is _not_ to come to mine for dinner.”

Marinette sounded indignant as she said, “What? Do you expect me to make dinner for myself?”

“You do it sometimes, when you're not ordering in,” he pointed out. “Stop mooching off of me.”

“I don't see you being the one cooking it,” she shot back. “Besides, I bring dessert sometimes. Isn't that lovely of me? No wonder I'm considered your unofficial sister.”

Luka snorted. “No one's ever called you that before.”

“I call myself it all the time.”

“That doesn't count at all,” he said.

Marinette made sure to sniff loudly. “What matters is what's in my heart.”

“Get my family out of there, then,” he replied. “You're not welcome here, cretin.”

“Just because it's—” Marinette paused, looking at the time that was displayed in the top corner of her game. “Half two in the morning doesn't mean that you get to disown me.”

He protested, “I never owned you in the first place—”

“Yes!” Marinette cheered, sounding far too awake for how late it was. “That means I'm better than you.”

There was a beat of silence.

Then, he sounded utterly exasperated as he said, “You know that's not what I meant.”

She hummed. “I'm sure.”

“I'll leave,” he threatened. “I'll do it.”

“Go on, loser,” she goaded. “I dare you.”

There was a quiet noise—one that was almost drowned out from the noises from the game—but it was clear that he'd left the voice chat.

Marinette laughed.

When the morning came, she didn't waste any time in being the one to wake him up.

 **(07:45) to luka:**  
_rise and shine, loser  
it's time to wake up_

There wasn't a reply.

During the day, Marinette helped out at her parents' pâtisserie. It worked out well for them—she was able to spend time with them, made it so they didn't have to suffer through trying to find someone to hire, only for them to quit a few months after, and it was something that she'd been doing since she was younger.

So, it was familiar to her. The regular customers knew her face, asked about her life and what she was doing, and she knew a few details about them, too. When she was younger, she used to duck out the store to deliver products to nearby customers, but that had stopped when her parents decided it was too much work for her.

She was thankful for that, of course.

She was even more thankful that she didn't have to work at the weekends—at least, not at the pâtisserie.

While her parents were in the back, sometimes coming through the doors to help her with customers, it meant that she had to manage the till, make the requested drinks, and serve them throughout the seating areas inside, and the few tables they had just outside the front door.

When it was busy, she had the option to poke her head in and ask for help, but she usually didn't have to do that too often.

That day, however, she did.

The uncomfortable feeling of wetness splattering across her face was one that she was becoming familiar with on the job, and it was awful.

She wiped her face with her sleeve with a bit too much force.

And when she turned the blender came on, it continued to spit out some of the contents, making more of a mess than it should've—if it was in pristine condition, like when it had been back when she was sixteen, then she wouldn't have felt her mood plummet with very spin of the device.

They weren't going to have it replaced any time soon.

When Marinette stumbled into the kitchen with milkshake still splattered in her hair, her mother patted her shoulder on her way past, taking over the front while Marinette washed up.

The fact that the customer hadn't even said thank you when she delivered the drink made it even worse.

It wasn't until she was finished with her shift and walking back to her apartment that she got a response from Luka.

It was in the form of a call.

“Hey,” she said as she answered the phone, brushing loose strands of dark-coloured hair back behind her ear. “You're two minutes late.”

Luka scoffed. “I was _busy_.”

“I know you're on your break right now,” she shot right back. “You can't tell me that there's something more important than me.”

“Everything is.”

She laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“I don't know why I even talk to you any more,” he muttered.

“No one else laughs at your jokes,” Marinette replied, trying to sound ever-so-sincere. “That's the only reason you keep me around.”

“That's where you're wrong,” he proclaimed. “Someone laughed at my joke earlier.”

She grinned, her free hand deep in the pocket of her jacket. “Yeah, and how did your chat react to it?”

“Let's not talk about that,” he said flatly.

Marinette laughed loudly at that.

Stupidly, she'd forgotten her gloves that morning, so the hand that she was holding her phone with was starting to grow uncomfortably cold. The weather wasn't warming up fast enough for her liking—but that might've been because it was nearing the end of winter, rather than being spring.

She hated how her nose ran whenever she was outside.

And there was the fact that Luka liked to point out, “You need to blow your nose.”

“I would if I had any tissues,” she said in return. “But, no, they're still on my counter at home. Laughing at me.”

“Tissues can't laugh, Marinette,” he patiently replied.

She would've rolled her eyes if he could see. “They can do anything when I'm tired enough.”

“You get tired enough to be haunted by inanimate objects?”

With a thoughtful noise, she corrected, “Terrorised is more like it.”

“Sure,” he said, clearly not wanting to continue the conversation on with that. “Do you have your umbrella with you?”

“Well, it's always in my bag—”

Luka sighed. “Put some tissues in the pocket, then, idiot.”

“That requires me actually remembering to do that,” she pointed out. “That's asking for a lot, you know?”

His response made her laugh. “Remind me again why I'm even keeping you company right now?”

“Because you feel sorry for me?” she innocently replied. “Talking to me is the best part of your day, don't lie.”

“It's really not—”

She made a disapproving noise. “It's the only part of your day.”

“Are you just forgetting our jobs on purpose?” he asked.

“Can it really be classed as a job?” Marinette responded. “I'm getting mixed signals, but if we say no, you're the one that's jobless and still living at home.”

“I'm _not_ moving in with you.”

She sniffed loudly, not just for the sound effect. “You're breaking my heart.”

“And you're also home, right?” Luka questioned. “Because I need to pick Juleka up now.”

The mention of his sister brought a smile onto her face. “I'll let you pick her over me this once.”

“I flip a coin to choose which one of you I like more daily,” was his response to that. “See you later, yeah?”

“I've got to make dinner first before I can come online,” she said. “But I'll be there. Say hi to Juleka for me.”

He replied, “Why don't you just text her? She'd love to shove that in my face.”

“You can't tell me what to do,” Marinette shot back. “Bye.”

There was a lot of things that she liked, but even after a terrible day, Luka calling her so they could talk while she walked home was something that always cheered her up. It worked well for their schedules; it was rare that they had to cancel, and that was usually if the weather was bad and Marinette wanted to run, or the rare time where he was busy with a prior engagement.

For the lack of friends in her life, she enjoyed the ones that she had.

There were those that messaged her when she logged online, but they didn't—they didn't _know_ her, not really.

Gaming had always been something she did for fun.

Whether it was with Juleka or Luka, or even the both of them, she enjoyed going over to their house to play while she was growing up. There were a few other class-mates that shared their hobbies, but none of them had really clicked with her.

 **(16:17) to juleka:**  
_tell your brother he's lame  
also hi_

Juleka was used to Marinette gravitating between her and her brother. It had been awkward when they were younger, back when Marinette had only seen Luka as the cool older brother that she saw at her friend's house, but as she got older, she ended up going over there to see him, rather than Juleka.

It took a while to make it not awkward between them.

But after knowing the Couffaine siblings for over a decade, their relationship was easy-going. There wasn't much that Marinette didn't know about either of them, and it helped that their mother was ever-so-fond of her.

 **(16:20) from juleka:**  
_k  
he scowled at me_

She grinned.

The routine of her life was simple—waking up to go to work for her parents before coming home to her apartment, making dinner after she turned her computer on. The second bedroom, that had originally been offered for Luka to use, was turned into an office of sorts for her, only filled with her desk, computer, and other things she'd need while playing, while her actual bedroom was the smaller room and kept most of her belongings in it.

It wasn't an apartment that most her age would've been able to afford, especially not someone that had opted not to go to university.

But when she'd made the decision to join Luka with streaming a new game that they'd bought together, it ended up turning out to be the best decision of her life.

Her bank account definitely confirmed that.

Somehow, it turned into her streaming in the evenings, the number of viewers shooting up with each session, and her rank amongst other players grew higher until she found herself within the top percentage.

That meant more viewers.

And with viewers came donations, her username recognisable within games, and even when she spoke within the in-game voice chat, some recognised her.

It was baffling.

And yet, a year and a bit on, she was still going strong. There hadn't been in a slip in her numbers, the routine of evening gameplay streams turning out well, and with Luka doing the same, it meant that their schedules lined up.

They bumped into each other a lot at night.

 **(all) Ladybug:  
**why are you here

She didn't have to look at her chat to know that they'd be reacting to his presence in her game, even if he was on the opposite team. Marinette didn't join his party and play with him often, but with their rating being near the same, they were matched together a lot.

It was even funnier when they ended up on the same team and could talk to each other over voice chat.

 **(all) L4DYBUG:**  
this is harassment  
I will not stand for this

 **(all) Ladybug:  
**you're sitting

 **(all) L4DYBUG:  
**what the heck

Another player from her team spoke—not typed—and told her to stop flirting and play, and she politely told them to fuck off.

Then, she purposely waited around corners and killed Luka, ignoring the actual objective of the game for her own enjoyment.

After she died, he gave her the same treatment.

 **(all) Ladybug:  
**why are you bullying me like this?

Making commentary to herself, just for her stream to hear, had become increasingly easier over time. She tended to stay away from insulting other players, as some other streamers tended to do, choosing to propose stupid situations or go on tangents about topics that weren't even related to the game.

She avoided talking about her personal life.

 **(all) L4DYBUG:  
**there can only be one Ladybug

 **(all) L4DYBUG:  
**time to die

 **(all) Ladybug:**  
you renamed last week  
?

 **(all) L4DYBUG:  
**new and improved

Their friendship was well known, and when Luka renamed his main—and only—account to be a butchered version of her own, it made them being matched in the same game even more amusing.

Of course, there were some that actually thought she he was her, which was embarrassing.

In her streams, she only had her microphone on, not showing any pictures of herself, so whenever he responded to that question with his deep voice, it caused laughter.

She'd been sent a lot of clips.

As Luka didn't have another job, he was mad enough to have two streams each day—the time while she was at work, and at the same time at night as her—something that she really didn't think she'd be able to do.

There was only so many times she could go against the same people.

It kind of lost the charm when so many players knew of it; either from watching her stream, as it was always one of the most popular for the game, or from simply being in matches with them.

And it was because of that that she'd bought another account, named it something unconnected to her as Ladybug, and had started to level it up outside of when she was streaming, hoping to get to the required level to play competitively.

It was taking a while.

Luka was nice enough to keep her company while she played most of the time.

“This plot twist is really dumb,” he announced.

His commentary as they watched a film together was amusing.

As she had two screens—one to see the chat while she was streaming—it came with a lot of uses. One of them so she could have a film up while playing on the other, helping ease the almost mindless activity.

“I don't know,” she mused. “I've seen worse.”

He made a noise of agreement. “Want to watch something else?”

While she had to press a button to use her microphone in-game, she had it open all the time during her private talks with Luka. He was much the same, too lazy to try and filter anything else, and it was easier for the two of them when they were doing other things.

It also meant that he had every click of her keyboard, and she could hear his chair squeaking when he leaned back on it too far.

“Can't,” Marinette said. “Match just started. I don't want to get kicked for inactivity.”

“It won't take that long to change—”

She clicked her tongue. “You don't know me.”

“I really wish I didn't,” was his response to that. “Are you even close to levelling up enough yet?”

With her sourness clear in her voice, she replied, “Not yet.”

“This would be much easier if you'd just accept my friend request,” he pointed out. “All I want to do is see.”

She idly moved her cursor over an enemy player's head, eliminating them without much effort. “No, I'm not taking the risk.”

Luka sighed. “It's not like anyone would be able to add you from just seeing you on my friends list—”

“Yeah, but the name will be associated with me.”

“Now, that's just stuck up,” he stated.

Marinette laughed. “You have, like, three people on your friends list.”

“We could make it four,” he muttered.

“No, thank you,” she replied. “I'll be ready by like next week, I think. Promise me that you won't be a dick and out me.”

Luka's response was combined with the squeak of his chair. “You have no faith in me, do you?”

“...Is that actually a question?”

There were times where she wondered what she'd be like if she hadn't befriended Juleka, and then her brother. She could've been with class-mates, studying in university and focusing on studies, not turning on a lamp and playing a game until the late hours in the evening, talking about the weirdest topics with her friend.

She didn't feel so worthless when he was there to cheer her up.

Sometimes, when she didn't have anything to do, her mind wandered to thinking about the worst things—whether she was making a stupid decision from pursuing playing a game as a career, or if her life would really go anywhere with it.

But even before she'd made that decision in life, she'd already had those negative thoughts.

Luka helped.

“I am... so lost,” he said, sounding mystified. “I walked away for two minutes. How could I miss this much?”

She snickered. “Honestly, I've been confused since the beginning.”

“I want to cry.”

They started to make up their own theories about what was going on, giving ridiculous backstories for the characters, and generally being annoying. Their running commentary was one of the reasons that Juleka didn't like watching films with them any more.

Then, suddenly, it wasn't their comments that were making her laugh.

She spluttered out through her laughter, “I—what?”

“Yes,” Luka readily agreed. “Absolutely.”

“Not that, idiot,” she chided. “I'm being accused of hacking again.”

He snorted. “Again?”

“Second time today, but this guy's... raging a lot,” Marinette slowly said, paying attention to the in-game chat, a bit surprised from how fast the other player was typing. “Oh, and now they're calling me names.”

 **(all) Turntle:  
**you fucking loser

 **(all) Turntle:  
**cant win without hacks?

Luka didn't sound sympathetic at all. “That's what you get for playing with low levels.”

“It's not like I'm bullying them or anything,” she lamely defended herself. “I'm trying to blend in, really. That's why I'm talking to you.”

“What?” he instantly asked. “Are you saying I bring down your skill level?”

“Absolutely,” she replied, amused. “I meant I'm more focused on this bad film, but okay.”

 **(all) Turntle:  
**this isnt even ranked asshole

And it was because those type of messages kept coming, causing the other players to ask whether it was really true—and not coming to a clear decision about it—that Marinette decided to have a little fun.

Even if she got reported, there wasn't anything that could get her banned. She hadn't typed anything in chat since she created the account, and definitely wasn't cheating.

She'd avoided standing out too much from the other low levels from performing too well for her level, instead lazily playing and not really caring about stats at all, but with five minutes remaining of the match, she strayed away from her team.

“He's—he's raging so much,” Marinette said through her laughter. “This is _glorious_.”

Luka was clearly entertained by the switch in her mood. “You're so mean.”

Rather than playing with the rest of her team, as soon as Turntle died, she ran to where he spawned to kill him all over again.

And thus began a five minute cycle that caused her team to lose, but it was absolutely worth it to see all the angry comments that were directed at her.

And then, just before a few top stats were shown, there was a small highlight of what was considered the best moment from a selected player throughout the whole match—

It was her killing Turntle along with two of his team-mates that had come to help him.

She was absolutely cackling at that.

It was made even better when she was matched against him the following game.

 **(all) Turntle:  
**still hacking i bet

“I'm with this asshole again,” Marinette announced. “I'm going to camp his spawn.”

Luka laughed. “I thought you weren't bullying them?”

“Well, he started it,” she lamely replied. “Calling me a hacker is one thing, but insulting? He's asking for it.”

“Maybe he's into it,” he mused. “Could be getting off on it.”

She grimaced. “Gross.”

There was only time for that last match before the film finished. So, Marinette made the most out of it—her and Luka were so terribly confused about the plot of it, meaning she chose to entertain the two of them by giving him a commentary of Turntle's reactions, and him telling all the players that she was hacking still.

Her team won that time, somehow.

 **(all) Turntle:  
**right

 **(all) Turntle:  
**not like youd win without the fucking hacker

 **(all) Turntle:  
**how is he banned yet?

For once, Marinette typed a response with her new account.

 **(all) Li Na:  
**bye, turntle

 **(all) Turntle:  
**fuck off!

“He—he told me to fuck off,” she wheezed out through her laughter.

Luka still sounded amused as he said, “Poor guy.”

“Oh, he was asking for it,” she stated. “Really. Why insult anyone after they kill you?”

“...To call you a hacker,” he slowly pointed out. “Obviously.”

With a laugh, she agreed, “Obviously.”

-x-

 **la dee boog** @ladybugimon **·** Mar 12  
@lukame if I report you for hacking will I be supreme ladybug

 **Im not luke** @lukame **·** Mar 12  
@ladybugimon no

 **la dee boog** @ladybugimon **·** Mar 12  
@lukame pls?

-x-

Two days later, when Luka couldn't join her for the night and had gone off to bed, the funniest thing happened.

Marinette had just been listening to music, hadn't even joined the voice chat for her team—something she avoided doing on anything but her main account—and hadn't even been paying attention to who she'd just been matched with until she looked at the chat in the bottom left of the screen.

 **(team) Turntle:  
**fuck you

She grinned.

Turntle was on her team that time, not against her. But even so, when the game began, she stuck close to his character, not attacking anyone else, and just being generally annoying to see what his reactions would be.

And, of course, they were as rage-filled as last time.

 **(team) Turntle:  
**fucking do something

 **(team) Turntle:  
**whats the point of your hacks if you cant even win

As she was taking damage and shooting occasionally, but not going out of her way to do anything fancy, she wasn't kicked for inactivity. It riled Turntle up the whole time, with him typing away the whole time, but to her surprise, her team-mates weren't joining him.

Some of them were even telling her to calm down and leave her alone, as she was clearly a new account with that low of a level.

She snickered at that.

It wasn't the nicest thing to do, she knew that, but it wasn't like there was any harm in doing it. Others had done far worse—from shouting abuse over voice chat, or purposely jumping off the map and making it so they were useless for the entire game—and all she was doing was having a little fun with Turntle.

She wasn't going to go out of her way to behave in the same way every game.

And, somehow, despite her just tagging alongside Turntle and dying instantly whenever the other team saw her, her team managed to win.

It made him even angrier.

 **(team) Turntle:  
**im not carrying your stupid ass any more

 **(all) Turntle:  
**report li na for hacking pls

Of course, then came the replies that pointed out that she hadn't been doing particularly well, and it turned into them calling Turntle an idiot.

It was probably more funny than it should've been.

Turntle didn't turn up in her games after that.

Marinette retold her tale to Luka when she was walking home from work the following day, and he just called her a child for making it worse. Usually, if someone was rude to her on her main account, it was just because they wanted the attention of her stream—or, rarely, they actually meant it and didn't realise that thousands of people would so it.

So, for some random person to accuse her of hacking and then _continue_ to insult her whenever they matched together?

It was amusing.

If it had been years before, before she'd started streaming at all, the insults probably would've gotten to. She supposed that she would've been upset, not knowing what to do when being harassed like that, but she'd dealt with it for years—it didn't really cause her any distress any more.

And that probably just aggravated Turntle even more.

That was why she was surprised when she logged in a few days later to find a friend request sitting there, ignored.

Against her better judgement, she accepted.

Turntle wasn't online.

“The audacity,” she complained to Luka. “I accept and he hasn't even been on in _three_ days?”

He patiently replied, “Neither have you.”

“That's not the point right now and you know it,” she shot back. “You're supposed to be on my side here.”

“I'm the wise one in any situation you're in,” Luka stated. “Since you lack so much common-sense, it's my job to try and make you realise what an idiot you are.”

She sniffed. “Rude.”

“Yeah, sure,” he agreed insincerely. “You still coming over for dinner tomorrow?”

“I'll think about it,” she said, adjusting her headset as she tried to sound uninterested. “I might be busy.”

Luka clicked his tongue. “I'll say yes, then.”

She forgot about it for a while, go about her usual routine; working, streaming at the same time as Luka so they could bump into each other and cause their chats to get more excited because of it, and levelling her alternative account when she found the time.

Luka didn't stay up with her every night. It wasn't as though they did everything together—it was just more enjoyable when she had company, and Luka had the same pitiful amount of friends that she did.

She had those that she spoke to when she logged online, but she didn't tell them much. They didn't know her real name, didn't know more than that she worked in the mornings (never telling them what), and their conversations were usually about random topics, never anything personal.

And that was fine.

She had Luka and Juleka.

They knew her well enough that they could tell if she was feeling off from how she'd typed a text, and she liked to think that she knew that about them in return.

That wasn't something she'd find with anyone else out of the blue.

Sometimes, old class-mates of hers came into the pâtisserie and exclaimed their surprise to see that she was still there, and it ended up in a few awkward conversations. There had been a few that had exchanged numbers with her, wanting to keep in contact, but it never went far.

And she was just fine with that.

Her life had a routine, a rhythm to follow along with, and it was one that suited her.

So, for Turntle's name to pop up with a message to her—that was something she'd almost forgotten about.

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**hi

And that was it.

No accusations of her hacking—not when they'd last played together over a week ago—and definitely no insults included.

She was a little bit incredulous.

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**hello?

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**why did you add me

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**?

 **(whisper to) Turntle:**  
why did you add me?

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**i wanted to avoid matching with you

That made her laugh.

It was something players did. Being on a friends list meant that it was visible whether a specific player was in a game, and they'd queue up to find a game while they were busy. It was something only the most petty did.

She'd done that while complaining on Luka after he beat her once.

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**I haven't even seen you for a week

 **(whisper from) Turntle:**  
yeah  
whats up with that

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**I was busy?

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**ok

And that was it for that conversation.

It almost felt like it didn't happen at all.

But as the days passed, Turntle continued to pop up whenever she logged online. It was an awkward conversation of him saying hello, her returning it just as bluntly, and it never really went further than that.

That lasted for over a week until they wound up in the same games again.

Marinette was getting closer to the level where she could go and play ranked, to leave behind the current game-mode that she was playing, one that didn't depend on competitive points to be matched against each other. The intent for her creating the account at all was to see how far she could climb without the current reputation that she had—

But that was kind of ridiculous to think about when she realised that people would recognise her voice in matches—matches were she needed to talk over the voice chat to effectively communicate with her team-mates.

She hadn't quite thought that through.

Still, she could play outside of her stream, not actively acknowledging her account. She didn't like playing on her main without streaming, as many people said that they felt they were missing out when they couldn't see the results of her matches.

And even just thinking that was something strange, something she wouldn't have had years ago.

To think that people looked forward to listening to her voice, to seeing her play the same game over and over—

It was really flattering.

 **(all) Turntle:  
**pls dont spawn camp me

It might've been a bit egotistical, but she doubted that it was directed at anyone else. The game hadn't even been going on long; they were still waiting in their respective spawns, waiting for the timer to let them out.

 **(all) Li Na:  
**I'll think about it

 **(all) Turntle:  
**pls

 **(all) Li Na:  
**what will I get in return

 **(all) Turntle:  
**i wont call you a hacker

She actually cracked a smile at that.

 **(all) Li Na:  
**the bar is very low

 **(all) Li Na:  
**but ok

He didn't say anything about purposely killing him, even if it meant abandoning what would've been better for her team in the end. As each character got an ultimate skill every few minutes—the time depending on the character—it was usually used in the most effective way, rather than from being petty.

Marinette had no qualms going out of her way to kill him in one-shot with it.

 **(all) Turntle:  
**what

 **(all) Turntle:  
**oh my god

 **(all) Turntle:  
**what is wrong with you

 **(all) Turntle:  
**wtf

It amused her more than it should've.

He didn't type anything for the rest of that game, but it didn't last long enough for Marinette to repeat her actions. Instead, when she queued up for the next one, she was the first one to type when she saw that he was on her team.

 **(team) Li Na:  
**I can still find a way to kill you

 **(team) Turntle:  
**pls dont...

The punctuation just made his message so much better.

She didn't torment him that time.

There wasn't much typing, but when the match was finished, Turntle whispered her to say good-bye.

It was a little bit strange.

Marinette brought it up with Luka the next day.

“I played with that asshole again last night,” she said. Then, with a horrified noise, she realised what she'd really just said as Luka started to laugh loudly. “I—not like _that_! I meant the prat that called me a hacker, you know?”

“Yeah.” His voice was shaking from his amusement. “Yeah, I get it, but that was still amazing to hear.”

She sniffed. “I'm talking about gameplay, not the anal kind.”

“I wasn't aware our relationship was _that_ close—”

“Oh, fuck off,” Marinette interrupted, not at all offended. “You know all kinds of things about me. You can't say me talking about my asshole would be the weirdest.”

Luka groaned. “Can we really not talk about this? I'm so uncomfortable.”

“You're not the one with sore feet,” she complained.

“My brain is sore from talking to you.”

She snorted. “That's not very nice.”

“Neither are you,” he said. “I think you need one of your terrible nicknames for him—you're actually talking now, aren't you?”

She huffed. “My names aren't that bad.”

With a flat tone, he replied, “Marinette, you called your class-mate Meatball for two years.”

“The name stuck!” she defended herself, voice going a bit higher-pitched than before. “It's not like I really knew them, okay? And it's their fault for wearing their hair in a bun everyday. What else was I supposed to call them, then?”

It was obvious he was trying to hold back his laughter as he said, “Their name.”

“Ridiculous!” she exclaimed.

“Fine, since I can't keep referring to someone as Asshole without it sounding like I'm sinning, I'll just—” Marinette cut herself off, purposely humming loud enough so he'd get the picture that she was thinking it through. “Fuckboy seems pretty suitable, doesn't it?”

The only response she got to that was an exaggerated sigh.

Amused, she quipped, “I think it's pretty generous of me.”

“I'm hanging up,” he announced.

“I'm almost home,” she replied. “I'll forgive you for this betrayal.”

He breathed out loudly. “I hate you.”

Marinette laughed.

-x-

 **lbug13**  
_(image: luka with his headset on, glaring)  
_Liked by **lookam3** , **lekaleka** , **roseandpose** , and **81 others**

 **lbug13** @lookam3 still refuses to swear and it's making me nervous... he's so powerful

 _View 57 comments_  
**roseandpose** we stan a family friendly streamer  
**shibaiknow** @roseandpose are we even watching the same streams

-x-

 **(17:12) to luka:**  
_fkboy is sad I won't party up with him  
can you believe the nerve of him_

 **(17:14) from luka:**  
_why would I care about this  
pls tell me_

 **(17:15) to luka:  
** _sorry not sorry_

 **(17:16) from luka:**  
_are you skipping streaming to hang with ur new bestie  
?_

 **(17:17) to luka:  
** _can you not read_

_I said I can't party up  
I'm watching my food in the oven right now_

**(17:19) from luka:**  
_wow  
ur so responsible_

 **(17:20) to luka:**  
_ya  
praise me more, please_

He didn't respond after that.

But it wasn't a lie. Fuckboy, as she'd started to constantly started to refer to him as, genuinely did seem a bit upset that she didn't want to queue with him. It wasn't as though they'd done it before; rather, they'd spoken a few times over whispers and been in the same games a few times, but he'd definitely never asked if she wanted to team up with him before.

Her first response had been to ask whether he still thought she was hacking.

His answer was that he hadn't decided yet, which was a _lie_.

There was no way he still thought she was hacking.

Later, when she'd finished her stream and decided to fit one more game in on her alternative account, she readily clicked on his name to whisper him from seeing him active on her friends list.

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**being better than you at gaming doesn't mean I hack

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**sry

His response was almost immediate.

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**are you sure

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**make up your mind already

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**am I a hacker or not

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**might need some more proof

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**do you wanna carry me

At least he was being honest about that last part.

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**I've got time for one

When she wasn't trying to antagonise him, it wasn't so bad. Turntle kept his comments to their whispers—still typing away whenever he died and claiming that it wasn't his fault, when Marinette could clearly see that it _was—_ but there wasn't any true anger, and she found his messages amusing throughout the course of the game.

So much so that they played two matches before she relented and said that she had to sleep before she had work the following morning.

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**yeah ive got class

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**fking rip us

She grinned.

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**rip

It was a spur of the moment thing when she asked whether he would be on the following day, and to her surprise, he said yes.

When she came on that late afternoon, he didn't say anything to greet her; rather, he simply invited her to a party, the notification popping up at the top of her screen, practically screaming at her.

She accepted.

“I'm feeling very neglected,” Luka proclaimed.

But even though her keyboard was very audible as she played, she could hear his, too.

“Tend to your plants and shut up,” she retorted.

Luka sniffed, microphone good enough quality to pick it up perfectly. “It's still multi-player if you want to work on my farm with me.”

Recalling the previous times they'd strayed to other games together, she asked, “So you can betray me and marry some commoner instead?”

“You can't just call the villagers commoners, it's rude,” he scolded. “Besides, I could marry you, too, but I really don't want to see what our children would come out as—even if they are just pixels.”

“I'm _offended_.”

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**im being bullied

Luka laughed. “It's fine, I know you don't want to multi-player when you've got your own save for it.”

Marinette started to say, “Yes, that's definitely why—”

“Why else wouldn't you want to spend time with me?” he queried. “I'm great.”

“You're a sad boy who's in his childhood bedroom,” she pointed out.

“And you're a sad girl in what could've been my bedroom,” Luka retorted. “Are we really that different?”

Pausing enough for the lapse in conversation to be dramatic, she announced, “We're both losers.”

“Very true,” he agreed with a laugh. “I guess that's why I have to stick with you, right?”

“ _Have_ to?” she questioned.

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**pls defend me honour

Marinette choked out a laugh.

Suspicious, Luka asked, “What are you doing?”

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**what's in it for me

“Fuckboy's getting beat on,” she answered without hesitation. “He's not really a fan of it.”

“Not his kind of beating, then,” he mused. “Are you even helping him?”

For someone that had no problem calling Turntle Asshole before, Luka avoided saying Fuckboy avidly. He wasn't a fan of swearing often; some words were okay, but the fee swearing for emphasis that Marinette did wasn't something he'd ever do.

Juleka joined her in making fun of him often because of it.

She clicked her tongue. “Why would I ever do that?”

“My mistake,” Luka immediately replied.

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**youll be my lord and saviour

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**ok

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**come hide behind me, child

Marinette wasn't very good at multi-tasking.

She'd gotten better at paying attention to the game and her chat—that was featured on her second screen beside her—but that didn't mean that she was able to keep up with every message that came through, or even all the donations that popped up, even if they had a special sound playing for a few seconds whenever they came up.

It was well known that she was terrible at paying attention to two things, making it so her own chat laughed at her for being so frazzled at times.

But the beauty of being on a voice call with Luka meant that they both had their microphones open, all sounds playing through to each other, and he didn't feel the need to speak every few minutes.

It also meant she could hear him make a noise whenever something good, or bad, happened in his game.

“You're still ditching him to play with me later, right?” Luka asked.

“Yeah, dude,” she confirmed. “I'm not going to skip out on that. I need the money.”

He outright laughed at that. “Oh, really?”

“It's your birthday soon.” That was accompanied with the sounds of her keyboard as she killed an enemy player, but it didn't stop their attack from hitting Turntle. “I've got to outdo myself from last year.”

Luka protested, “It's not _that_ soon.”

Turntle died.

“Soon enough for me to call your mother about it,” Marinette responded. “And your sister. Do you want your grandparents to come, too?”

His voice shrill. “ _No_!”

“Is that a no to the family reunion?” she questioned, playing innocent. “Because I'm sure they'll really want to see you, just for you to explain all your life choices to them. Right?”

“I will hide behind you if you make that happen again.”

 **(all) Turntle:  
**fucking bullshit

 **(all) Turntle:  
**no way that hit me

 **(all)** **Turntle:  
**i watched it back and theres no fucking way

With a wide grin, Marinette pointed out, “You're, like, twice my height.”

“That's an awful lie.” He sniffed. “It's not that much.”

“And even if you crouched down, your shoulders would stick out.”

Turntle died instantly.

“There's only one option, then,” Luka started dramatically, even going as far as to pause, but the silence was ruined by the squeaking of his chair. “You'll have to put on weight to hide me.”

She was tempted to exit the voice chat altogether.

“...No.”

He sighed loudly. “You're the worst friend.”

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**why do i always get shit on

She beamed. “Thanks.”

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**get good

Turntle quit the match, going offline before she could say anything else.

She burst out into laughter.

-x-

 **lookam3**  
_(image: screenshot of a farm game full of crops)  
_Liked by **lbug13** , **amitsu1337** , **lekaleka** , and **49 others**

 **lookam3** @lbug13 has left me a single parent to this farm

 _View 27 comments_  
**lbug13** I've literally never played in that save  
**lookam3** @lbug13 thats why its neglect...  
**kialyn** pls pls stream this ! !

-x-

It took close to two weeks for Turntle to convince her to do what he wanted.

She was reluctant.

Marinette wasn't good at branching out and talking to others, that was something that had stuck with her for years. She'd gotten better at talking to her chat, addressing them as a whole, only saying usernames that she recognised or when she thanked them for donations—but being invited into a chat with others?

The idea was terrifying.

So, of course, she turned him down for it.

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**fucking loser

They'd gotten to know each other enough that she knew that he didn't entirely mean that. They always seemed to be online at the same time, and the amusement she got from pairing up with him was enough to stop her from playing ranked on her alternative account, sticking to the matches that were casual and weren't counted towards her profile.

It didn't stop her from referring to him as Asshole to Luka.

The nicknames stuck.

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**you could meet the others i play with

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**there's a reason I don't join your party when they're there

Joining up with him alone was one thing, but for there to be a whole party of people that she didn't know? It sounded far too awkward for her.

And there was the fact that Turntle had started to hint that he was in the voice channel, if she wanted to join. It didn't take a genius to realise that he'd probably talk to his friends through that, and she'd feel even more awkward by typing replies—

It was never really in her plan to use that account for such purposes.

And yet, as Turntle continued to bother her, pestering her to join the chat since he wanted to get to know her, it became apparent that that really was why she was using that account at all.

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**there's no way I'm joining

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**stop harassing me

He didn't stop.

Instead, Turntle told her about how boring his day at work had been while they waited for a match to be found. He openly rambled and complained about random things in his life, never giving much context, and she didn't really have a good idea of what his age was.

After all, anyone could take classes. She was assuming that they were university level since he had a job, but he could've just been a teenager that needed the money—she had no idea.

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**stop telling me your life story?

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**no

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**I don't need to know about some cat you see on your way to work

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**?

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**but it sits on top of a fence

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**great

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**you asked about it the other day

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**you've got no proof

 **(whisper from) Turntle:**  
screenshots, dude

Her questions were answered pretty soon.

Unfortunately, it came with her reluctantly accepting the offer, downloading the application on her phone to get the chat available on there, and telling her woes to Luka before she loaded it up to accept the invite for the first time.

“It's good to put yourself out there, right?” was Luka's response.

She snorted. “That's more suitable for getting laid, I think.”

His laughter was more of an amused exhale through the microphone. “Is this you confessing that you're into ass now?”

“I regret talking to you now,” Marinette proclaimed. “You're supposed to hype me up, not make me want to crawl into a hole and cry.”

“There aren't any holes for you to crawl into,” he pointed out. “Unless you mean the hole in the middle of your mattress that you keep complaining about.”

Marinette sighed loudly. “You don't know how annoying it is, okay? It feels like I'm sinking when I roll over into it—”

“Marinette, I really don't care.”

“You're the _worst_.”

“Well, if you decide to ditch these potential new friends of yours, you can always come and farm with me,” he proposed, utterly serious.

She ended the voice chat.

It was normal to be nervous of meeting new people, even if it wasn't in person. Marinette was a being of anxious energy, something she was very open about, and she tended to be quiet when she didn't know what to say.

So, when she was bombarded with three people talking at once when she first joined the chat, her initial reaction was to just stare down at her phone, not quite knowing what to do in their situation.

They introduced themselves, each other, and gave titbits of information that really weren't necessary. Marinette responded tentatively, not putting much personality in her messages, and it was mostly Turntle talking for her.

Or, Nino, as he introduced himself as.

She was still going to refer to him as Fuckboy when talking to Luka.

 **(18:37) to luka:  
** _they're nice_

 **(18:38) from luka:**  
_so are my animals  
but u wont even acknowledge them _

For the upcoming days, when her phone vibrated with messages that weren't really intended for her to respond to, Nino did his best to keep her included when she was online. He was a lot friendlier than he'd come across when they'd first met; sure, he had a temper that flared up when he died in video games, but it seemed that his sense of humour got better when he was with his friends, and he appeared to be quite kind.

Kind enough to try and explain a few inside jokes, only for them to get twisted and sound so-very-strange.

It was still really awkward.

But it was always going to be, wasn't it? It was like joining a class late, when everyone was already acquainted and friends with each other. Marinette knew that the others in the chat played the game, but she didn't really want to join a big group with them—queueing up with one other person was the most she did regularly.

If it was anything larger, it was because of her stream.

From what she gathered, there was only three of them that were active. A few had come and gone over their year of knowing each other—something they happily told her when she asked about it—but it was them that remained.

There was another girl.

Alya, her name was.

Marinette didn't know much about her, other than that she lived close-by the other member, a male that had only been referred to as Nath for as long as she'd been there.

Nath was the quietest out of the three of them. The chat mostly consisted of Alya and Nino bickering, friendship clear as they were able to play off each other's words, and it was just as evident when Nath joined in.

She wondered whether that was how it was when others watched her and Luka interacting.

-x-

 **la dee boog** @ladybugimon **·** Apr 5  
streaming in 10m

 **i'm a leek** @jooleka **·** Apr 5  
@ladybugimon that's 1 past

 **la dee boog** @ladybugimon **·** Apr 5  
streaming in 8m get off my back, you monsters

-x-

Surprisingly, it was Nath that she started to talk to the most.

Other than Nino bothering her to play was him, that is.

Marinette had kept the application up on her phone throughout the day, lurking and only replying when she was addressed directly—feeling too shy to just insert herself in there—and it was in the evening when he reached out to her.

But unlike him, she wasn't up working a mysterious job into the late hours of the evening; rather, as she didn't work for her family during the weekend, she was streaming for hours on end, trying to get a high spot in the rankings with her main account, if only to put it in the title of her stream and get more viewers because of it.

His name was Nathaniel.

Tentatively, she said that hers was Mari.

The following day, Nino just about threw a tantrum through text when realising that she'd never given her name to him—and, to be fair, it wasn't as though as he'd genuinely asked about it in the past.

Being called Mari was a lot better than Li Na.

She started to learn small things about them; that Alya and Nathaniel grew up together, and were attending the same university, while Nino worked at a phone repair place outside of his own university classes—

It was always like that when she met someone her own age, wasn't it?

When she'd pushed back the opportunity to go to university, instead focusing on the career that she'd somehow managed to build while having fun, she hadn't thought about just how stifling it was.

From the apartment that she lived alone—as to not disturb her sleeping parents, who went to bed early due to their job—or the solitary lifestyle where she stayed cooped up in her room for most of the day. Her short hours at the pâtisserie were probably her most social time, as it actually meant looking someone in the eyes as she spoke to them.

And wasn't that a bit strange?

She considered getting a pet, just so there would be some more noise and interaction in her home.

But as soon as that thought was mulled over at all, she realised that it was a terrible idea. She was bad enough at taking care of herself, always pushing aside the simple tasks that were supposed to be _easy_ , and seeing an animal depending on her would've made her feel more anxious about her responsibilities.

But when she was asked how she was doing, she never said anything like that—no mention of her worries, or the way she found it hard to sleep at night, or even how getting out of bed in the morning was hard.

Marinette liked to keep those things private.

And so, when Nino and his friends started to ask personal questions, she dodged them, not quite giving them straight answers.

It never hurt to be too careful for information, did it?

She didn't tell her age or where she lived.

But she did tell them that she worked at a bakery—not quite lying, but not telling the whole truth—so she could honestly reply when they asked her about her her day was.

She liked to complain about some customers.

And, somehow, they found her answers amusing. Them actually liking her wasn't something that she'd quite expected, but it was a pleasant surprise.

Nino still spoke to her the most, though. He typed fast, tended to get words wrong, and when they were playing together, he stood still too long while typing and it caused him to die, only for him to blame her for the whole fiasco.

“I think we're friends,” Marinette admitted.

Luka just hummed.

She stretched her leg out and kicked the back of his chair.

He flailed a bit, being dramatic, before turning in his chair to face her. “What was that for?”

“You didn't respond correctly to my monologue,” she stated, crossing her arms over her chest. “I'm offended.”

His upper lip curled in disapproval.

“I'm not good at making friends,” she lamented.

He ran a hand trough his dark-coloured hair, pushing the strands off of his forehead. “You're doing _fine_.”

“You're only saying that because you can't see how awkward I am,” Marinette said, embarrassed after recounting to him a bad joke that had taken over ten minutes for someone to reply to. “I'm really not cut out for this. Remind me again why you're encouraging this?”

“So I can have time alone with my farm.”

She fell back against his bed. “Hurry up, I'm getting bored.”

Luka assured her, “I'm almost done with this day, okay? I just need to—”

“ _Bored_ ,” she exclaimed, rolling over onto her front and pressing her cheek into the duvet. “I'm going to fall asleep if you actually tell me what you need to do on there.”

“It's not my fault you don't appreciate the time and effort I've put into this,” he haughtily replied. “Clearly, you have no taste.”

She grouched, “I would have taste if you hurried up. I was promised dinner, not this terrible show of skill.”

“Marinette, you're looking at my bed.”

“Which hasn't had any action,” she pointed out. “Therefore, no skill. I'm still right.”

His chair squeaked as it turned, and she laughed when he lightly kicked her leg that was hanging off of the bed.

Her worries seemed really insignificant when she was having fun.

-x-

 **lbug13**  
_(image: food placed messily on a plate, some of it on the table)  
_Liked by **amitsu1337** , **roseandpose** , **lekaleka** , and **24 others**

 **lbug13** @lookam3 is incapable of serving anything but bad attitude

 _View 9 comments_  
**amitsu1337** f  
**shibaiknow** he serves more than that...

-x-

They were definitely friends.

Nino continued to message her whenever she came online at the same time as him, no matter if it was on the game or just on the chat, and while at first her replies were quite tentative, she eventually became more comfortable.

And then that comfortable spread to the other two; first, it was Nathaniel.

It was natural, since they ended up speaking into the late hours of the evening, after Luka had gone off and said that he needed to be smart and sleep—unlike her—hand it was more than a few times a week that it had happened.

It kind of became a thing, actually.

Nathaniel was blunt when he wanted to be, and he didn't really come across as shy in his messages. But from the stories that she'd been told from Alya—the ones that Nino always laughed at—he was quite reserved in person, and very soft-spoken.

It was just a part she wasn't really going to find out about.

The first time she played with someone that wasn't Nino, it was Nathaniel.

He wasn't awful at it.

But most of the time, he stood still and typed to her, clearly far more interested in getting to know her instead. And she didn't have a problem with that, not really; Li Na had been made to be used for her own personal use, and it was only because of Nino that she'd continued to play the unranked game modes.

So, to stay up and just type to Nathaniel while he did his own things—it was _nice_.

Slowly, she started to reply the messages from the group chat on her phone while she was streaming, but it was few and far between. She had to give her attention to her actual job.

That was one of the few thing she opened up to them about, too.

They'd caught on quickly that she disappeared in the early evening, only to reappear in the late hours when they were contemplating whether they should go to sleep or not.

To them, she was Mari, the one with two jobs, a face that she'd refused to send a picture of the one time they'd asked, and she didn't tell them much else.

And that was great.

It worked well.

At least, it did until Nathaniel brought up the topic of streamers.

She left her half-typed message up on the screen for longer than necessary as she looked at their replies.

“Oh,” she said.

The bottom of her stomach felt tight.

Friendships always had downsides, but this—it seemed so ridiculousto her.

Luka shared the same thought.

“Ignore him,” Luka urged her, voice crackling at the end for a moment due to their connection. “You're friends, right? I doubt he'd say that to hurt you.”

She pursed her lips.

“And, besides, you probably haven't told them everything,” he said. “Which is fine, really. I do that on other accounts, just because it makes it easier. I'm not going to be a hypocrite right now.”

To learn that Nino disliked streamers had been a bit strange.

That wasn't really normal, was it? Then again, it wasn't as though as she had many others to compare it to.

Nino had every right to dislike things, but it had just—it had been a shock to see him actively dislike something so much without any warning.

It made her happy that she'd kept that titbit to herself.

It wasn't as though she was upset by it, not really. It was more... disappointment that she couldn't share that part with him, but she'd never _planned_ to.

All it meant was that it was definitely off the table.

She leaned back in her chair. “Want to do something tonight?”

“That depends,” Luka started.

And when he didn't continue on instantly, she prodded, “On what?”

“On your idea, of course,” he said. “Give me the options.”

There was a short pause before she asked, “Juleka's home tonight, right?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Rose's busy.”

It was with the knowledge that Juleka's girlfriend not being there that she asked, “Any chance I can convince you two to get drunk and watch terrible films with me?”

Luka laughed.

“I'll bring cake,” she promised.

He didn't hesitate to say, “Absolutely.”

While Marinette considered Luka and Juleka her closest friends, their small circle of friendship had been extended when Juleka had started to date Rose. And Rose was so friendly, with such a bright smile, that she managed to integrate herself with them easily, getting along and charming everyone along the way.

As much as Marinette liked her, she knew that Rose wasn't really a fan of their rare nights were they stayed in and had alcohol together.

The icing on the cake had rubbed against the top of the container by the time she was ringing the doorbell.

Juleka was as thin and tall as her brother, but her skin was paler, the dark-coloured hair standing out against it greatly.

Marinette had her face covered in her Juleka's long hair when they hugged.

“You saw your chance and took it, didn't you?” Juleka said as her greeting, the smile clear in her voice.

Marinette just laughed. “Don't act like you have a problem with it.”

“Not when there's cake,” Juleka replied.

With a wide smile, she assured, “It's a bit flat, but it'll still be good.”

And it was good.

The whole night had been.

The three of them had bundled up on the sofa, a blanket stretched across them all, and Marinette ended up with her legs on Juleka's lap by the middle of the film. They played some ridiculous drinking game just to make it even more enjoyable, taking the opportunity to regret it the following day as none of them had anything to do in the morning.

Their mother came in when they were just past tipsy, and to their amusement, sat down beside them and leaned forward to the coffee table and helped herself to the drinks supplied there.

It really was nice.

It made her miss living at home, though. Marinette's own parents would feel comfortable enough to come and sit down when she had friends round before, more than happy to make conversation with Luka and Juleka, but couldn't happen while she lived alone.

No one really came over often.

Marinette didn't blame them.

The apartment wasn't really lived in. There was a lot of things missing from it—personal touches—and it didn't have the homely and comfortable feel that the Couffaine house did, or even her parents'.

Hers felt stale in comparison.

But she had people that knew her completely, ones that she was happy and open with, and that was more than enough.

-x-

 **lbug13**  
_(image: luka's face with marinette's hand pressing against his cheek, doing a peace sign)  
_Liked by **amitsu1337** , **roseandpose** , **lekaleka** , and 51 **others**

 **lbug13** the dumbass energy from us tonight was asotunding

 _View 48 comments_  
**lookam3** asotunding  
**amitsu1337** asotunding.

-x-

The series of events that happened were a bit skewed.

Marinette wasn't quite sure in what order they happened.

But, somehow, three things seemed to happen at once.

She found out that Nathaniel had red hair, that he had a crush on her, and she'd managed to reject him, all in one night.

It was a bit of a rollercoaster, to say the least.

They'd gotten close, they had. Marinette had started to message Nathaniel more than Nino, about things like music and television shows that they shared an interest in, or even just to tell him that her day at work had been boring, and that she needed something to cheer herself up with.

The typical friend things—the things she'd do with Luka and Juleka.

But, somehow, that had gotten lost in translation.

At least, that's what she thought.

She'd never really actively flirted with someone, tried to make her interest known. If anything, she was slowly becoming more comfortable with him, able to talk about more things—

It was flattering that he'd started to like her, but it wasn't something she was very experienced with. Marinette felt awkward at first, especially as she apologised for what had transpired when she was drunk and on her phone, but Nathaniel kept assuring her that it was fine.

That it was just a crush, and that they could still be friends.

It made her stomach tighten uncomfortably.

That could've been all it was to lose her sudden new friends, couldn't it? They'd all known Nathaniel for longer—far longer, from what she'd been able to tell—and if he'd started to dislike her, she had no doubt that they would've backed him up, rather than her.

And that was kind of terrifying.

But if she was in that situation, she would've trusted her friends, too. Even if it was something as petty as someone not liking them back, she would've wanted to smooth out the awkward atmosphere, and ease the tension to the best of her ability.

And yet, everyone continued to treat her normally.

It made her wonder whether they were purposely avoiding mentioning it.

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**?

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**ya of course we know

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**dont wanna scare you off you know

That was kind of sweet.

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**oh

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**it wouldn't scare me off!

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**just found it weird that no one's bringing it up?

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**trust me

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**were both bringing it up with nath

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**relentlessly

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**rip

After that talk with Nino, the incident—as they dubbed it—did start being brought up in chat. It was clear from Nathaniel's responses that he had no problem with the teasing, and it took over a week for Marinette to relax and start to laugh about it.

Nathaniel apologised, worried that he'd made her uncomfortable.

She wasn't afraid to say that she had no idea that he even liked her at all.

It did bring up the topic that she didn't have many boundaries with her best friends in person, and that if she was crossing any lines and making Nathaniel feel uncomfortable, she wanted him to tell her that he wasn't okay with it.

He assured her that none of it was her fault.

The phrasing brought a smile to her face.

But they were okay. Nathaniel continued to stay up late in the evening, the two of them messaging while he worked on his projects for university or his mystery job (always tending to be more productive in the night), while she was either streaming or playing privately for her own enjoyment, or even doing something with Luka.

Multi-tasking was hard.

That being having conversations with multiple people at once.

She tended to stick to the one-on-ones first, checking those messages and responding quicker, while the group chat took a while to catch up-to-date on.

But she made it work.

When she hung out with Juleka or Luka, she openly said to the chat that she was going to be busy and gone for a few hours—if she said anything at all—and other than talking to Luka about it, she kept those two parts of her life separate.

It was easier that way.

And it continued on; she juggled who she spent her time online with, lounged in her bed and stared up at the ceiling for too long in the mornings, and, sometimes, when she got into bed, she felt too anxious to go to sleep.

To see Nathaniel online at those times was comforting.

He didn't ask her why she wasn't asleep, or why she was logging in again after only thirty minutes; rather, he asked what she was going to do.

He understood her.

And that was something rare to her, truly.

And as she got to know his schedule, being able to tell him what classes he had in the morning when he was busy and refusing to go to bed, that was when she realised just how close they'd gotten. For that to happen after the _incident_ was something monumental to her.

When she told him that he was one of her closest friends, Nathaniel only took a few minutes to respond with the same answer.

She grinned at that.

“I'm glad you have friends,” Luka said, throwing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close to him. “I'm like a proud parent right now.”

She pinched his arm lightly.

Luka laughed. “You brat.”

Although Luka was two years older than her, she'd gravitated towards him during their breaks at school, effectively meshing their two groups of friends together. And it had almost always been like that; they'd attended the same creative arts college together for a single year before he graduated, but they'd still had some time together there.

On their main accounts, their friend lists were pretty similar, too.

So, naturally, she fiddled with her hair as she said, “You could—you know, join, if you wanted to.”

“Your chat friends?” he queried, curious.

“Yeah.”

There was amusement clear in his voice as he replied, “No, I don't think so.”

“What?” Marinette was surprised. “Why not?”

For a moment, he looked conflicted for words before he settled with clarifying, “It's—you've only just met them, right?”

“Kind of?” Her answer wasn't very clear. “It's been, like, a month.”

“I don't really want to barge in on that,” he explained with a nonchalant shrug. “Besides, I have more important things to do than babysit, like tending to my farm.”

There wasn't any bite to his words—he wasn't trying to offend her in the slightest, and she really understood that. It didn't mean that she wasn't a little bit disappointed that he'd rejected her, but he was right.

If Luka joined so soon, she would've just felt more comfortable talking to him, probably neglecting trying to respond to the others so frequently because of how familiar she was with him.

She jutted out her lower lip. “Fine.”

“I'm wise beyond my years,” he boasted, going as far as to push his dark-coloured hair away from his forehead. “Praise me more, please.”

Marinette shoved him away from her. “Yeah, no.”

“ _Abuse_.”

-x-

 **Im not luke** @lukame **·** Apr 21  
Im a single farmer and looking to sow my seed

 **i'm a leek** @jooleka **·** Apr 21  
@lukame can u not

 **Im not luke** @lukame **·** Apr 21  
@jooleka u dont get to judge me

-x-

Luka's birthday began with Marinette coming round for breakfast, making it a small affair.

It ended with the two of them streaming and queueing up for their next match together, making the mistake of taking a shot of alcohol at the start of each game.

It went downhill very quickly.

Nino laughed at it the following day, and when Marinette asked why he even watched it all, Nathaniel said it was because of him and Alya.

It didn't upset her in the slightest that he thought it was ridiculous. People were entitled to their own opinions, and the pounding headache she had definitely proved that it really had been stupid.

She didn't actively defend herself—well, herself as Ladybug, the username that she was known for. She'd always kept the two parts secret; from separate social media accounts for her personal life and online one, the one where she simply used a picture someone had drawn awfully of her favourite character almost everywhere.

All she said was that she liked Ladybug.

It was a little amusing.

It was flattering to see small clips from her streams being shared on websites, gifs of her gameplay being posted due to something stupid happening or even people considering her actions impressive—and the reaction it got whenever Alya posted one in the chat got increasingly more amusing as time passed.

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**thats it

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**youre showing me up too much

 **(whisper to) Turntle:  
**I learned it from ladybug

 **(whisper from) Turntle:  
**traitor

When the four of them played together for the first time, they didn't win a single match, but Marinette was smiling. She'd rejected joining voice chat, stating that she didn't have a microphone, and they obliged continuing to type to her throughout the games.

Nino was still the worst.

It was a running joke at that point, one that she was involved in.

It wasn't a secret that she was the best player among them, but she had fun goofing off, not taking it too seriously. There wasn't any reason to, not when no one was watching her, or she didn't have to keep her rating consistently high to continue to attract viewers.

To be able to mess around and purposely die just because Nathaniel made a bad joke was very relaxing.

She wasn't as nervous when she was in the group chat. She understood the private jokes, knew how to amuse each of them, and it being such a small group was so-very-relieving.

The thought of joining a chat with more than twenty people was honestly terrifying.

She liked what she had.

Change was terrifying, but the change in the almost two months that she'd experienced was a positive one, definitely.

Luka continued to ask about them, wanting to know about how Marinette was getting on with them, and he encouraged her all of the way. There was no jealousy, no snide comments that she was finally having more friends—no, he'd never been that way, and she very much doubted that he ever would be.

And when she was talking to Alya, Nathaniel, and Nino, she was very open about her interests—and that had started to include her talking to Nathaniel about Ladybug while in the group chat, actually amusing herself by trying to word it as though she was a different person.

Did that make her narcissistic?

It wasn't as though she was gushing about gameplay or anything; rather, just saying that she was a fan, and that it was only of the main streams that she watched.

It wasn't a complete lie.

And the fact that it made Nino be dramatic for a few minutes was a bonus.

She liked to annoy him.

It wasn't as though she was having trouble dividing her time between friends. Marinette did what she wanted, for the most part; if she felt like spending time with Juleka or Luka, she'd simply say to Nathaniel and the others that she would be busy for the day, never giving much more explanation than that.

And even though they knew that she wouldn't tell them any more, they did try.

It was kind of a running joke at that point.

But she was a private person. There was a reason her viewers only knew her voice—which was a feat in itself—and she was planning to keep it that way.

At least, that had been the plan until she'd blurted out that she'd use her webcam if she hit what she'd considered to be a ridiculous amount of subscribes for her stream. And, somehow, she'd managed to almost reach that due to her consistent popularity. There were some that donated regularly to remind her of the promise, going as far as to link to a small clip of where she'd actually said it during a game.

She had a little time before that, though.

The change in her routine came in an unexpected way.

Nino was never good at keeping secrets, she'd already learned that.

So, to not ruin the surprise, he'd decided not to tell any of them at all he'd met someone new while playing, someone that he'd befriended along the way.

Marinette had to wonder whether they'd been bothered as much as her to join.

-x-

 **la dee boog** @ladybugimon **·** May 05  
ami can suck my dick

 **please don't call me kags.** @amitsu1337 **·** May 05  
@ladybugimon you're a sore loser.

 **la dee boog** @ladybugimon **·** May 05  
@amitsu1337 I can't hear you over my rank 12 sorry?

 **please don't call me kags.** @amitsu1337 **·** May 05  
@ladybugimon it would've been 10 if you didn't choke.

 **la dee boog** @ladybugimon **·** May 05  
@amitsu1337 would you like to be choked

 **please don't call me kags.** @amitsu1337 · May 05  
@ladybugimon without hesitation.

-x-

For the weekend, her parents closed their pâtisserie.

It was a trip that had been planned for months, and for it to finally come was a bit nerve-wracking. Along with her backpack, Marinette had a laptop that she'd splurged on, along with a microphone to use while she was away.

When they went to visit family, and therefore stay at their house, Marinette streamed in the evening while everyone else went out to spend time together. Marinette had opted out of going due to her stomach hurting, and after a few too many kisses on her cheek, she was comfortable enough to stream within the tiny bedroom she was using for the weekend.

It was a really nice weekend.

Other than the few hours that she was alone, she kept away from her phone.

She'd almost forgotten about the new person in the chat by the time she'd returned.

“They seem nice,” she said.

Luka just raised his eyebrows.

“Nice,” Marinette repeated as she tapped away at her phone, tearing her eyes away from her friend's judgemental expression. “I'm happy they're here.”

“That doesn't sound sincere at all,” he stated.

Sourly, Marinette locked her phone screen, no longer looking at the chat. “I'm not good with new people.”

“I really hope you're not looking for anything inspirational here,” Luka replied, leaning back on the sofa and stretching out so his legs were on top of her thighs. “Because I don't have anything like that. I'm not paid enough to be your therapist.”

She squinted. “I don't pay you anything.”

“That's my point, idiot.”

She rested her head against the cushion, looking up at the ceiling. “I just feel awkward.”

“I hate to break it to you, but you're terribly awkward.” Luka emphasised that with a patronising pat to the top of her head, only pulling back when she went to bat his offending hand away. “You were gone for, what? Two days? I doubt they're best friends already.”

Marinette shrugged. “I don't want to be a fifth-wheel.”

“Isn't that only if they're dating?” he questioned.

She shoved his legs off of her.

Going back to work wasn't difficult.

The regulars that knew that she was absent for the weekend with her parents all asked about her trip, meaning she had to repeat the same answers multiple time, but it was the sight of an unwelcome customer that made her frown.

“You were closed.”

Marinette took in a breath before she turned to look at the customer, her smile not reaching her eyes at all. “There was a notice on the door.”

Accompanied by a flip of blonde-coloured hair, the customer that was on top of Marinette's most-disliked list replied, “So?”

“So,” she started slowly. “We were closed.”

“I gathered that, thanks.” The answer was very sarcastic. “Why?”

She scowled. “A family matter.”

There was just something about her that irked Marinette. Their brief interactions had never been outright rude, but the flippant tone and the demands for a milkshake although she knew that the blender made a mess and was a nuisance every time was enough for Marinette's dislike of her to grow.

It was petty, she knew.

The customer just raised her eyebrows at that before ordering a different flavoured milkshake to normal.

What was even worse was that her parents had noticed how frequently she came in, and had therefore splurged and added a few more flavours, all of which had attracted more customers to want them, too.

It was the worst part of her job.

She told Luka as much when he called her on the way home.

“Milkshake's out to get you, eh?” was his response.

Marinette pretended to sob.

By the time she got home, she barely remembered that she was worried about logging into the group chat again after her absence. But there really wasn't any reason to worry, not really. She was immediately welcomed back into her circle of friends, pleasantly surprised by how kind the newcomer, Adrien, was.

She took him under her wing in a way.

It was mostly to annoy Nino.

 **(whisper from) PLAGG:  
**what am i doing wrong?

 **(whisper to) PLAGG:  
**sidestep the attack

 **(whisper to) PLAGG:  
**you keep walking into it instead dklgjdfhf

 **(whisper from) PLAGG:  
**oh

 **(whisper to) PLAGG:  
**it hurts more the closer you are

 **(whisper to) PLAGG:  
**so you're getting wrecked

 **(whisper from) PLAGG:  
**thank you! i'll try and do better!

At first, she'd thought that he was really sarcastic, but after spending a few hours talking with him, she figured out that he talked like a pre-teen most of the time. From the excessive amount of punctuation, refusing to capitalise anything, and his bright personality from what she'd seen, it was hard to believe that he was actually twenty.

Older than her.

When she'd offered to play with him and attempt to tell him what he was doing wrong, she wasn't actually expecting him to accept.

Yet, somehow, Marinette started to play with him for a few hours the first evening, past when she usually would've went to bed. He had no qualms with staying up late—much like her and Nathaniel, and occasionally Nino—and was very earnest in wanting to be better at the game.

It also helped that she was his favourite streamer.

Not that he knew that, of course.

Still, it was a boost to her ego, definitely. And to see Adrien actively defending her in the chat whenever Nino said something sarcastic was hysterical to her.

It was a bit weird to find such things amusing, wasn't it?

-x-

 **lbug13**  
_(image: screenshot of ranked leaderboard, marinette third, luka ninth)  
_Liked by **lookam3** , **amitsu1337** , **lekaleka** , and 151 **others**

 **lbug13** the superior ladybug will win

 _View 103 comments_  
**shibaiknow** l4dybug is the only bug for me  
**lekaleka** ur both losers

-x-

When she was hit with a cold, Nathaniel hurt his wrist.

That meant that he couldn't safely continue his night job—which he still refused to tell her, not when she was so secretive herself—and while he did still stay up at night, he went off earlier than usual.

However, the newest member didn't have a healthy sleep schedule either.

Adrien was a performer of some sort, apparently.

He didn't talk about his personal life often, and that was fine. It wasn't as though she was pushing him to, and he definitely didn't prod her to learn more about her; rather, they spent their time together making stupid jokes, or doing ridiculous combos when they were playing, aiming for fun instead of winning.

The last cold she had had had only a few people genuinely asking whether she felt better.

But whenever she logged on, almost everyone asked her. The group chat, her viewers asking if she was okay when she muted her microphone whenever she sniffled or needed to cough, and the gratitude she felt to them for caring at all was a little overwhelming.

But in person, that part hadn't changed.

Juleka did come and give her some of her favourite cough syrup at work, though.

It almost ended up on the floor when she fumbled to catch it.

Whether it was Adrien's enthusiastic typing, or how excited he seemed whenever she logged on, there was something endearing about him. And that was the reason that when he asked more about her, she actually told him that her name was Marinette, and not just Mari.

It wasn't a big deal, but it sure felt like it.

While it was obvious that Alya and Nino had a clear crush on each other, she didn't expect something else.

She choked when Adrien assumed that she was dating Nathaniel, just because of how close they were.

 **(whisper from) PLAGG:  
**is nath not joining us because of earlier?

 **(whisper to) PLAGG:  
**you mean because you thought we were fucking

 **(whisper to) PLAGG:  
**nah, he hurt his wrist so he's not doing much lately

 **(whisper from) PLAGG:  
**oh

 **(whisper from) PLAGG:  
**that makes sense!

It was the same with Luka for some people, though. Whether it was online or when they were growing up, people loved to assume that they were dating because of their closeness. Goodness, it had even happened with Juleka before.

It was kind of ridiculous.

But Adrien was earnest in his apology, hadn't meant to make anyone feel uncomfortable, and he definitely made up for the misunderstanding with the picture he provided of his black-coloured cat, Plagg.

Marinette was even more jealous of any that owned pets.

Well, other than the puppy that had moved in next door. It was loud, could constantly be heard during the night, and her stomach pooled with nerves when she realised that it could be picked up on her microphone.

She was muting it to hide her illness and not annoy her viewers, but she wouldn't be able to do that for every single bark.

Instead, to her relief, her viewers started to make a counter and made a game out of it.

The drop in her mood came with a reveal that wasn't very welcomed.

To learn that Adrien and Nino lived close to her—within walking distance, even—was absolutely terrifying.

The city was large, she knew that, but that didn't stop her from worrying all about it. The chances were miniscule, barely there, but the thought was. She hadn't seen pictures of either of them, had no idea what they looked like, and that—that was even weirder, wasn't it?

They'd all shared pictures since Adrien had joined, his enthusiasm spreading to them, too.

And for her to know them so well, but not have a clue of what they looked like was strange.

She wondered whether her viewers felt that way, too.

It was a convenient time to ponder that, as her subscriber count was reaching a milestone where she'd promised a face reveal, oh-so-long ago.

Luka had been using webcam from the start, not really caring when he turned it on and had messy hair or that his camera had fallen to an unflattering angle. If anything, he preferred it to be in the worst places, swapping the position on the desk every week or so, making it a reoccurring theme on his channel.

She didn't put a lot of effort into it.

Well, that wasn't quite right. She did look in the mirror, constantly fixing her hair, but she made sure to dress casual.

Ladybug, the streamer, cursed a lot, liked to make jokes, and was pretty casual. There wasn't any reason to wear a pretty dress, do her hair and make-up nicely and look like she was going out with the purpose of drawing attention—

It was a heart-pounding experience of nerves.

She kept staring at what her webcam was capturing on her screen, not ready to press the button to start broadcasting, a bit terrified of what the reactions would be to her.

She'd seen some streamers constantly mocked for their appearance, made the butt of a joke just because of how they looked, and she sincerely hoped that it didn't happen to her.

If anything negative did happen, she wanted it to be because she deserved it due to her actions, not for something she couldn't help.

She could understand Nino's frustration of streamers not getting the comeuppance that they deserved.

Since learning that he'd been mocked by one in the past, and then by the fans of said streamer, she'd tried to be more careful with her words, not wanting to encourage the same thing to happen again.

But her looks—her looks wouldn't cause such a thing.

She took in a deep breath.

-x-

 **la dee boog** @ladybugimon **·** May 22  
tune in to tonight's stream for a surprise

 **Im not luke** @lukame **·** May 22  
@ladybugimon are u finally getting good

 **please don't call me kags.** @amitsu1337 **·** May 22  
@lukame shouldn't that be at you?

-x-

Three things were very clear.

Alya lived two hours away with Nathaniel.

Nino asked her on a date, finally, after the two of them knowing each other for two years.

And that meant that Alya was coming even closer, travelling to meet him.

She couldn't really imagine meeting up with an online friend. It wasn't something she'd really done before, hadn't been that close to many. The best example she had of getting along with someone so well was with Nathaniel, but there was so much between them that wasn't said.

Other than him, her closest friend just talked shit to her all the time.

 **(whisper from) AMITSU:  
**are you even trying?

 **(whisper to) AMITSU:  
**I will end you

 **(whisper from) AMITSU:  
**sure, bug.

 **(whisper to) AMITSU:  
**I will annihilate you

 **(whisper from) AMITSU:  
**big word from you.

 **(whisper to) AMITSU:  
**maybe to you since you're 10

 **(whisper from )AMITSU:  
**10 ranks ahead of you.

Marinette only knew that Amitsu's name was Kagami because of her stream. It was how they'd met, actually.

They'd kept being queued into each other's games, and her viewers had pointed it out in chat, and it had turned into them talking teasingly whenever they were matched together, both of their chats open for their viewers to see.

There wasn't any personal talk.

Kagami called her Bug as a nickname, but that was about it. They hadn't spoken about their lives outside of the game, what age they were—nothing outside of their banter whenever they were paired together.

Kagami knew Luka, of course. Her friendship with him, if it could even be considered that, wasn't as playful as it was with Marinette, but it was still there.

Marinette couldn't imagine going to meet up with her, not when she didn't know any personal details. There was no real want to actually meet her; she was happy with what she had.

Just like she was with the group chat.

Was it strange that she didn't want more?

Alya, Nathaniel, and Nino had known each other years, but from what she'd gathered, it was the first time that any of them was actually meeting in person.

She didn't know about the other members of the chat, the inactive ones that she hadn't had the pleasure of meeting within her short amount of time living there.

The chance came to meet another member very soon, to her surprise.

It made her choke on her spit, though.

The doorbell to the Couffaine house didn't do anything to quell her fast-beating heart.

Marinette adjusted her grip on the box in her hands, shifting her feet as she waited for the door to open.

And when it did, she was greeted by Juleka's bored-looking face, looking as though she'd just woken up.

“Hey,” Juleka started, sounding tired and lazy all at once. “You actually came.”

“Here's your cake,” Marinette announced, thrusting the box into her friend's arms, her voice higher-pitched than usual due to her panic.

She trudged past into the home, taking off her shoes in a familiar way as she moved, going straight into Juleka's room and dramatically falling onto her bed, face squished against the duvet.

The bed dipped down a bit as Juleka sat down beside her.

There was a pat to her backside. “There, there.”

Marinette grunted.

“So,” Juleka started, but after a brief silence, she didn't continue.

Instead, Marinette heard the distinctive sound of the box opening.

She sat up quickly, turning around and taking one of the small slices of cake that she'd brought over.

With her mouth full of food, she muttered, “I can't believe this.”

Juleka's laugh was muffled by her holding a hand covering her mouth to hide her mouthful. “It is pretty ridiculous.”

“Like you knowing Ladybug?” Marinette shot back, glaring as she licked the frosting off of her finger.

And when Juleka smiled, she had crumbs in the corner of his mouth. “Is it a lie?”

“I'm, like, an undercover spy right now, okay?” she exclaimed, wiping her hand on her jeans. “I'm incognito and all that shit. It's hilarious to see their reactions to my streams, but you—you can't let me have that, can you?”

Juleka had no shame as she said, “I'll stop if it gets boring.”

While Marinette and Luka played the game daily, Juleka hadn't seem interested in it. She had better things to do with her day; her classes, practising dancing, and spending time with her girlfriend.

So, for her to be one of the older members of the chat was utterly ridiculous.

The chances were so low, barely-there, and yet, it had happened. Juleka could've been anyone's name, but for her to be introduced with a hurt ankle—that had happened at practice a few days ago, something that Juleka had vented to her about—was slightly less of a stretch.

It was so so dumb.

She knew that Juleka wouldn't out her. There was a reason that she had two social media accounts, trying to keep Ladybug away from herself, even after the face reveal.

She doubted that anyone really cared about searching for her that much. And since she hadn't seen any comments like that thus far, she had to assume that she was right.

There was a reason that she trusted Juleka so much. Juleka would have her fun, sure, but she wouldn't ever do something purposely to hurt her.

Marinette couldn't keep a straight face as she pointed out, “You're a closet gamer girl, eh?”

Juleka's gaze flickered between her and the cake in her hand.

“I don't deserve cake in my face,” Marinette said with a laugh.

Juleka's eyes narrowed. “You do.”

“I really don't.”

“Yeah?” It was rhetorical, not asking any more. “Then, maybe, you shouldn't be so obnoxious.”

Marinette put a hand over her heart as she gasped. “You're calling me obnoxious?”

Juleka was able not to laugh as she replied, “Terribly so, you monster.”

There was a moment when they just looked at each other blankly before bursting into laughter, the kind where it was mostly breathy, barely any noise escaping them as they wheezed. Marinette had her head resting on Juleka's shoulder while Juleka was cradling the cake, trying not to let it fall to the floor.

It was such a strange situation.

But Marinette was delighted with the reveal, really.

She couldn't have thought of anyone better to be in there with her.

“Thanks,” she said softly.

Juleka's amusement was still clear in her voice as she intentionally replied so dumbly with, “For not caking your face?”

Marinette just grinned.

She didn't mind that Juleka kept sharing pictures of her in the chat, further backing up that she actually knew Ladybug in person, only because there wasn't anything mean behind it.

If it amused Juleka, she didn't seem any harm in it.

It wasn't as though she was going to come clean any time soon.

She liked how things were going, even more so with the inclusion of Juleka. It was absolutely hilarious to see how Juleka kept saying that she knew Ladybug, the reactions it caused, and she really didn't care about how stupid she was being when she threw in comments about herself, acting like a fan.

Because she liked herself, at least. It was just a little weird.

However, Juleka's arrival came with other revelations that she hadn't expected.

She didn't march over to the Couffaine home for that one.

Instead, Marinette waited for the week-daily phone all as she was on her way home from work.

“Hello?” Luka answered, sounding a bit slurred from tiredness.

She wasn't surprised that he was napping.

She grinned to herself. “Did I wake you up?”

“Oh, frick, is that the time?” Luka exclaimed, and there was the tell-tale sound of him moving, probably to sit upright. “I forgot to set my alarm.”

Marinette sniffed dramatically. “You don't care about me any more—”

“I stopped caring long ago,” he interrupted. “But continue.”

“Maybe I don't want to now!” she replied. “You're bullying me after just waking up. That's even worse than usual.”

Luka snorted. “Is it, really?”

“Well, my feelings think so right now, thanks.”

Then, he jokingly said, “How can I make it up to you, you poor dear?”

“By not sounding like my grandmother, first of all,” Marinette stated. “But I do have a question for you.”

“Yeah?” he prompted.

“Yes,” Marinette confirmed. “Do you remember who did your emotes for you?”

The noise that left him wasn't very sure at all. “I—maybe? I'd have to actually look since I can't think of the name right off the top of my head. How come?”

“It's Nathaniel,” she admitted. “The one that had a crush on me?”

Luka positively cackled, sounding more awake than ever. “Really?”

“Yes,” she said sourly, reaching up and pushing her fringe away from her face, if only for the those seconds before the wind blew it back. “Juleka's known all along, but she didn't see any reason to mention it—the usual, you know.”

It was easy to hear the grin in his voice. “Juleka's friend?”

“Very much so,” Marinette confirmed. “Like, actual friend. Not an acquaintance. You're free to go talk to him and embarrass her, if you want.”

He hummed. “Technically, I could do that to you, too, couldn't I?”

“Ladybug, not me,” she corrected.

“You're the same person.”

“Not to them,” she insisted. “It's funny, okay?”

He snorted. “You're catfishing your friends.”

“Am I?” she replied, higher-pitched than necessary and drawing out the last vowel. “Am I, really?”

“Okay, just being secretive,” Luka stated.

“I'm undercover to see what my fans think of me,” she deadpanned.

He burst into laughter before her.

-x-

 **lbug13**  
_(image: marinette resting her head on juleka's shoulder, both grinning)  
_Liked by **lookam3** , **roseandpose** , **lekaleka** , and **218 others**

 **lbug31** luke is dead to me and now my best friend is his sister

 _View 149 comments_  
**amitsu1337** rip luke.  
**kialyn** no!

-x-

“I can't believe you're making me do this,” Marinette said, stretching out the gloves she was putting on, purposely making them make a noise when they snapped back into place. “This is your worst decision yet, you do know that, right?”

Luka looked at her, unimpressed. “Compared to all of yours?”

“But we're not talking about me right now,” she replied, gesturing towards him. “It's the time to talk about your mistakes—namely, trusting me right now.”

“You'll do fine,” he answered, but there wasn't any sincerity in his voice.

Her expression was dubious. “You could've got a professional, you know.”

“Yeah, but I made the mistake that of saying that you'd do it,” Luka muttered. “So, we're stuck with this. Want to get it over with already?”

Behind the camera—staying out of shot and not wanting to talk much—Juleka clapped her hands together and did the universal gesture of telling them to hurry up.

Affronted, Marinette crossed her arms. “You're being awfully bossy for a silent presence.”

Juleka slowly raised her middle finger.

The music was switched on when Marinette started to mix the bleach in a little pot, accidentally spilling some of the powder onto the floor. Luka was sat in a chair in the middle of his kitchen, having already made sure that his mother wouldn't come home during the duration of the stream to embarrass him (which she would've loved to do).

Juleka was sat on top of the countertop, phone in her hand, and making sure that the camera was directed towards them at all time.

Much like Marinette saying she'd do a face reveal, Luka had jokingly said that he'd let Marinette dye his hair if he reached a certain about of subscribers.

They both greatly underestimated how much their audience wanted some things.

“So,” she started, still stirring the mixture with the brush required. “Not the roots, right? Everything else is free game?”

“Do your worst, I guess,” Luka said, sagging back against the chair, trying to get comfortable. “As long as you don't burn my skin, all's good.”

They'd both dress in horrendous clothes that they didn't mind being ruined; meaning, matching t-shirts of Luka's that were faded (and almost went to her knees, unlike on him), and pyjamas pants for him, legging for her.

She stole a pair of Juleka's socks.

It was surely a good look.

The first victim to the bleach was her t-shirt.

A large blob fell onto her breast when she was leaning forward.

Then, it was the towel that was wrapped around Luka's shoulders that started to get droplets of it.

“I don't know how Rose does this,” Marinette said, her eyebrows pinched together as she tried to slather the ends of his hair in the mixture. “It's so fucking annoying.”

One of Juleka's first sentences was her quipping, “Probably with patience.”

Marinette pointed the brush threateningly at her, but all that it caused was more bleach falling off onto Luka's t-shirt.

He turned his head to stare at it.

Then, without any emotion, he said, “How dare you.”

Marinette used the brush to smooth out the blob on his shirt. “There.”

“I didn't think my faith in you could get any lower,” Luka said, amusement clear in his voice. “But here we are.”

She cackled. “I could always try and make shapes with your hair.”

“I will actually punt you into the sun,” he threatened.

“Rude,” she remarked. “But fine, I'll be nice.”

The bleach outcome wasn't bad, but when it came time to dye it, Marinette didn't put enough of the dye mixture on certain bits, meaning it came out patchy. While he was sat on the chair again, she had a hair-dryer and kept looking at the camera with a grimace as the colour became more and more clear.

“Well.” She cleared her throat. “At least it's not green?”

And it wasn't.

He'd been going for blue, but she was sure that he meant one shade of it. Instead, the ends were really faded, while the rest was the actual blue from the bottle.

Juleka passed him a handheld mirror.

He stared at his reflection blankly for a few seconds before bursting out into laughter.

His skin had patches of blue on it, his neck was covered, and she'd gotten bleach over both of his old t-shirts, but they all joined in on the laughter, finding it all so ridiculous.

It was even more amusing when she logged online on the chat application, just to find that Adrien had left her a bunch of messages, live-reacting to the stream that she'd just done—all without knowing that it was her.

It was nice that he seemed to like her—Ladybug—for her personality, never really mentioning her appearance.

She learned more about him.

That he played the piano (which was were the joke that he was good with his fingers came from, before realising that it sounded dirty), that his closest friend might as well have been considered family.

And he learned in return that along with her name being Marinette, that he blabbed to the group chat in record time, that she lived in the same city to him.

It didn't seem like much to admit, not when they spoke so much.

Much like when she first started to talk to Nathaniel, once the two of them loosened up, it was easy for them to get along. Marinette always found herself amused while talking to Adrien, whether it was about silly topics, or even just the two of them playing together.

He was higher ranked than Nino after such a short time, and that was while he was playing by himself.

Still, he thanked her for it.

 **(whisper from) PLAGG:  
**thank you so much!

 **(whisper from) PLAGG:  
**i'll probably drop back down but still!

 **(whisper to) PLAGG:  
**you're welcome, child

When she watched films or shows online with Luka at the same time, they always used voice chat, as they tended to do other things at the same time. But Adrien thought she didn't have a microphone, and she wasn't going to change that any time soon.

It wasn't very hard to type out all her responses and quips, but it did mean that she wasn't playing something else at the same time; rather, she was giving him more attention than usual, and he was doing the same for her.

It was fun.

Adrien liked to pick apart what was happening, make stupid comments, and even create games with her where they took a bet and counted how many times something specific happened. There wasn't any drinking, no pictures being exchanged, or any other kind of rewards—it was just them having fun.

And she really enjoyed it.

But along with the stupidity of their interactions, she learned other things.

That his mother had passed away recently, and his father's sudden protectiveness over him was stifling.

She tried to use her stupid jokes to cheer him up.

It was easy to tell with Adrien when he was feeling down. His excessive use of punctuation disappeared at those times, making it very obvious that something had happened with his mood.

Plus, it was just weird to see his replies be so—so unenthusiastic.

He was back to his happy self the next day.

Marinette was happy, too, but it was for more than one reason.

“They're dating now,” Marinette announced, stretching out across Juleka's bed. “And wondering why you've died again.”

Juleka didn't look up from where she was painting her nails. “I'm busy.”

She hummed. “I'm sure.”

“Glad they finally get round to it,” Juleka said, lips curling into a small smile. “It's about time.”

And it really was. Marinette had already been fed up within three months of knowing Alya and Nino and seeing them constantly flirt and be useless—so, to be one of the first to know that they'd finally admitted their feelings when they'd met up was wonderful.

With a grin, Marinette couldn't help but point out, “Didn't we say that about you and Rose?”

“That's different,” Juleka defended.

“Is it?” she asked, voice high-pitched.

“I'm gay,” was the response. “They're just idiots.”

She snorted. “You can still be an idiot, you know.”

Juleka brushed her long hair over her shoulder. “I'm a genius compared to you.”

“That's setting the bar a little low, don't you think?” Marinette laughed.

“Hey, you're not an idiot all the time,” Juleka assured her. “There's a little bit of knowledge in you—sadly, it's mostly just games.”

She wrinkled her nose. “That doesn't work any more now that I know you play it, too, you know?”

“I haven't touched it in months.”

“So, what?” Marinette shot back. “It doesn't erase the fact that you did and hid it from me. That's pretty mean, don't you think?”

“It's not like you would've been able to play with me,” Juleka said, swapping her hands to do cover the rest of her nails. “Besides, I'm not very good at it. I just wanted to see what the hype was all about.”

But Juleka had never really shown an interest in it, not to her or Luka. Sure, their hobbies hadn't lined up in the past, but they're generally been very open with each other. Marinette liked to hear about her days dancing, how her classes were, and although she didn't understand everything, she liked to hear just how happy Juleka was.

And wasn't gaming that to her?

There wasn't much else going on in her life, was there? It was a repeating process, the continuous cycle of putting herself online and that being the main part of her day.

She looked up at the ceiling. “I would've liked to play with you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she breathed. “It would've been fun.”

There was a beat of silence before Juleka quietly said, “But I'm bad.”

“Winning isn't everything,” Marinette replied. “How else would I play with Nino, if it was?”

That made Juleka laugh. “He's awful, isn't he?”

“A huge rager,” she confirmed, a wide grin spreading across her lips. “After he was rude to me, I camped his spawn and killed him repeatedly until the game was over. I'm pretty sure he used to hate me.”

Juleka snorted. “That does sound pretty traumatising.”

“Well, so was being called a hacker,” she primly replied. “Besides, we're friends now. I help him do it if anyone's mean to him instead.”

Juleka agreed, “That does sound pretty fun.”

“Maybe, you'll find out in the future,” she offered.

“Maybe,” Juleka echoed, smile clear in her voice.

-x-

 **booga** @ladybugimon **·** Jun 27  
@lukame is not my boyfriend pls stop asking

 **looka** @lukame **·** Jun 27  
@ladybugimon bffs not bfs

 **booga** @ladybugimon **·** Jun 27  
@lukame shut up

-x-

Her phone fell off her mattress, hitting the frame of the bed before falling down onto the floor. Marinette was distraught as she picked it up and saw that more than half of the screen was shattered, clearly not safe to use due to the bits of glass that were trying to escape the cover she had on it.

During her lunch break, she took her phone to the nearest repair shop, leaving it there for a few hours and picking up at up after work.

It didn't seem like a big deal.

Not at all.

It was an everyday thing, something everyone did—

But not everyone met their friend from the internet without realising that it was them.

All she had to go on was the descriptions she'd gotten from Nathaniel, which didn't translate well when face-to-face with someone.

So, to learn that she'd gotten her phone back from Nino just over an hour before was absolutely baffling.

She could barely remember what he looked like—that was how much impact he'd made.

And wasn't that strange?

Nino had became a big part of her life in the past months, the very reason that she'd gained so many friends in such a short amount of time, but she hadn't thought twice of meeting him in person. There wasn't an instant connection—of course not, not when they'd only said a few basic sentences to each other—and not the usual banter that she had in the chat.

It was so weird.

Although she was confused at first when he mentioned, she accepted it soon after.

There wasn't any nerves about what he'd think. His distaste towards streaming wouldn't translate into blindly hating her in person—he wasn't that petty.

Well, she knew where he worked after that.

She couldn't really remember Nino's face—from him never showing her a picture—so when Adrien opened up to her with his, she saved the picture.

It wasn't weird.

Adrien saved all her pictures, and all the others, and surely had a large amount of photos on his phone.

He was her friend, and she just wanted to remember what he looked like. And although he was a big fan of hers, and that was why he'd saved the pictures in the first place, she wasn't doing anything wrong from wanting her friends in her phone.

His picture joined a few others of his cat, Luka, and Juleka.

There was a part of her that wanted to say that it wasn't him at first.

From the blond hair, the sharp lines of his face, and the exaggerated pout on his lips, it was very clear that he was good-looking.

His personality was already beautiful enough—so, to learn that his looks matched up to the rest of him was a little surprising.

It wasn't supposed to be rude.

It had just been easier to imagine him as a faceless being, instead of trying to think of all the different ways that he could've looked.

Then, of course, Adrien admitted that his best friend, Chloé, had taught him how to take a good picture.

Because she was popular online.

That sure sounded familiar.

But Marinette didn't post beautiful pictures of herself online; most of them were blurry, taken on the spot without her looking dolled up and ready, or just her looking tired in her computer chair, smiling to thank everyone for tuning in and beating her previous highest viewer count.

She didn't ask anything more from him, not when he said how uncomfortable he was with people always messaging him about Chloé. She knew it would be different—since they were actually friends—but he'd only just opened up about her, and she wasn't going to push him any further than that.

And so, the conversation strayed away from that subject.

Not much changed after the revelation of knowing the face behind all the enthusiastic messages.

If anything, nothing changed.

The first unwelcome change was her most-disliked customer coming back with a vengeance after being missing a while, creating more awkward conversation between the two of them.

Marinette always referred to her as Milkshake when she spoke about her, only because it made it easier—after all, it was all that she ever ordered from the store.

As Marinette stepped around the counter to pass the dreaded drink over to her, Milkshake's expression turned pinched as she looked at Marinette from head-to-toe. “Your shoes don't match.”

She'd thought that she looked quite nice that morning, actually.

“Thanks,” she replied, flat.

Milkshake took the drink from her, still frowning and looking so-very-judgemental. “Try something less... plain.”

They were her favourite pair of shoes to wear to work.

“Thanks,” Marinette repeated, a little louder. “I'll keep that in mind.”

And when Milkshake turned around she left, even that seemed haughty.

There was just some people that she disliked for no reason at all. It wasn't as though Milkshake had ever done anything wrong to her—well, other than tell her that her sense of fashion for her shoes was terrible—but they'd never gotten past blank greetings, even after she'd been coming in for months.

There wasn't any room for more conversation with her.

Still, it annoyed Marinette whenever she was looked at in such a judgemental way. It wasn't as though she'd done anything to deserve it; sure, if she'd messed up the order once, had maybe spilled it, she would've understood, but she'd literally hadn't done anything wrong to her.

She looked down at her shoes.

They were a little worn, she could admit that.

She didn't go shopping that often, she knew that. There were bits and pieces that she ordered online as it was more convenient, but they were rarely something that she'd wear often. She could admit that after starting to use her webcam, she'd started to think about what she was wearing more, but there were certain colours that she had to stick to while at work.

But that didn't apply to hair colour, apparently.

She made the same mistake as Luka.

Unlike him saying he'd stream the dying, she said that she'd do a twenty-four hour stream after dying her hair.

She really hadn't thought the day would come.

Rather than having a friend who had never dyed hair before do hers, Marinette went to Rose's house.

Rose was training to be a hairdresser, so it was bound to be better than not.

“Thanks for this,” Marinette said as her greeting.

The bright smile she got in return was reassuring.

It didn't come out awful, and it was nice to spend one-on-one time with Rose. It wasn't often that they did that; their texts were always about Juleka in some way, and they'd never really met up with the intention of just spending time with each other.

She knew that if Rose wasn't dating Juleka, they wouldn't have been friends.

And that was fine.

Rose wasn't really included in her small group of friends, but she was more than an acquaintance. She wouldn't quite trust her with her life, but she trusted her with her hair.

Her only just darker than pastel pink hair by the end of it.

It felt soft, looked very bright and was a lot more vibrant that her previously dark hair, and she was happy with the result by the time she sat down in her chair.

Without shoes on, so it wasn't as though they couldn't match her outfit.

There was only so many times that she could play the same game seriously before she got bored, so she roped Luka into playing on his ridiculous farming game for a bit, all until he started to yawn and said that he was bailing to go to sleep.

“He's betrayed me,” she sobbed.

She was feeling a bit dramatic by the halfway point.

Kagami was on in the morning to play with her.

At some point, she started to blast loud music to try and keep herself awake, the counter in the corner of the screen slowly counting down. Marinette ended up dancing at some points, getting dramatically into it and forgetting that she was supposed to be playing, meaning she ended up dying more often than not.

It got really stupid.

Kagami ditched her, too.

Juleka was a saint, though.

When Marinette messaged her and asked for her to bring some food over, she sent Luka over instead.

Luka, who'd been up late that evening, but still came trudging into the apartment after letting himself in with a key. He knocked loudly on her bedroom door, swinging it open with far too much gusto as he announced, “Your servant is here, mistress.”

She beckoned him over so he was visible on webcam.

Juleka was right in saying that his clothes didn't match.

He rolled his eyes when he realised what she'd done.

Luka dragged a chair from the living room to be beside as they both ate, answering questions from the chat for the brief break. There was still hours left of the stream, but the delivered food was more than enough to brighten her mood.

And the nice company, of course.

He left after that, purposely ruffling her suddenly pink hair.

She swatted his hand away.

Marinette started playing normal games, the unranked ones where she didn't have to worry about her rank dropping from her tiredness, and she did the most ridiculous things that she could think of. From only using one skill on each character, setting her sights on one player and doing everything she could to only kill them, or whatever her viewers decided on for her.

It was nice that she recognised some of the names that had stayed with her through the long run.

She wondered whether Adrien ever spoke in her chat.

Luka came onto voice chat with her while he streamed in the evening, but he refused to play with her.

“You get cranky when you're tired,” he explained.

“I know where you live,” she threatened. “I can hurt you.”

Luka laughed.

For hours, Luka spoke to her, trying to keep her awake. It was about stupid things; from what she was actually doing, to proposing things they could do in the future, or even what she'd like to eat that moment.

Marinette did start singing horribly at one point.

It was past midnight when she finally stopped, calling it quits with a sigh of relief. Luka's clapping was obnoxious through his microphone, but she laughed loudly at it, clapping herself.

“I'm never doing that again,” she announced.

-x-

 **lbug13**  
_(image: marinette smiling, shadows under her eyes)_  
Liked by **lookam3** , **amitsu1337** , **lekaleka** , and **115 others**

 **lbug13** I'm never doing 24 hours again

 _View 83 comments_  
**lekaleka** f  
**roseandpose** f!

-x-

While the pink hair brought out Adrien fangirling about her, which made her feel warm in her chest from the positive attention, it seemed to attract someone else's attention, too.

Which was really baffling.

Milkshake hadn't said anything other than her order. She looked Marinette dead in the eyes as she accepted the drink, bringing the straw up to her lips and taking a deliberate sip, still staring.

“Yes?” Marinette asked, awkward.

“Go shopping with me,” she said, because it definitely wasn't a question—it was a demand.

Marinette stared.

There wasn't a laugh added on, no comment that she was just joking; no, instead, they just looked at each other, clearly waiting for the other to say something.

It was a little unnerving.

“I—what?” Marinette stuttered out. “What did you just say?”

“I want to go shopping with you,” Milkshake said again, taking another sip of her drink. “You could use the help, and I wouldn't mind the company. It's win-win, right?”

It was the most that she'd ever said to her, and there wasn't a frown or a weird look directed her way. In fact, she'd expected some sort of reaction to the pink hair—as some of the other regulars had done—but that wasn't the case at all.

She eyed her suspiciously. “Why?”

“Why not?” was the response, so flippant.

All she could really say to that, “You've never asked before.”

“I never noticed your shoes before,” Milkshake bluntly replied.

She squinted. “This isn't really convincing me to go.”

Milkshake brushed her hair over her shoulder. “I've been a loyal customer for, like, months. It's the least you can do.”

Marinette didn't know what to make about that, or even the whole situation.

Was it a grasp at trying to be friends with her, or was she going to be stood up miserably if she said yes at all? Marinette couldn't quite understand where the need for interaction had came from, not when their limited conversations had been all that was going on between them.

Then again, she didn't have pink hair before.

The hair brought more attention to her, clearly.

It was a spur of the moment thing when she said, “Okay.”

Milkshake actually smiled at that, and it brightened up her face considerably, no longer looking sour or neutral.

The name that was put into her phone along with a new number was Chloé.

Chloé was a lot easier to get on with through text, rather than in person.

 **(18:06) from chloé:**  
_ya ya_  
i get it  
but like  
are u sure u dont want me to pick u up

 **(18:08) to chloé:**  
_I can meet you there  
it's okay!_

 **(18:19) from chloé:**  
_are u just being difficult  
or are u trying to be nice right now_

 **(18:20) to chloé:**  
_idk_  
what about you  
?

 **(18:22) from chloé:**  
_im always nice  
_fuck off

 **(18:23) to chloé:  
** _those two messages don't go together well_

 **(18:24) from chloé:  
** _fuck you_

They text a little bit in the build up to the weekend.

When it came to the day, Marinette contemplating deliberately wearing the shoes that Chloé had commented on before thinking better of it. She tucked her t-shirt into her skirt, putting on a pair of cute socks that barely saw the light of day, before putting a hat on.

The weather was as hot as it should've been in August.

She was glad she didn't bring a jacket.

Her outfit paled in comparison to Chloé's; from the intricate-looking hairstyle, the shirt that showed off her tall figure, and the skirt that flattered her greatly, Marinette was a bit startled when she saw her.

That didn't mean that Chloé had ever looked bad, however. She'd always looked put together whenever she'd come in for her drink, but Marinette barely ever got the view of the full picture.

It was a little odd.

“Hey,” Chloé greeted, removing her sunglasses and putting them on top of her head, blending in with the rest of her hair prettily. “You're late.”

She blinked. “Barely.”

Chloé just hummed at that.

“So,” Marinette started, feeling awkward as she stood beside her. She only just came up to Chloé's shoulder. “Where do you want to go?”

The answer to that was a short train journey away. The atmosphere around them was stilted and awkward at first, not at all like the last few texts that they'd exchanged, and Marinette fiddled with her hands for the most part of the journey, not knowing what to do.

Would taking her phone out be rude?

She thought it would be.

Then, Chloé took out hers, tapping away at her screen, her nails making noises with every press.

She did the same.

Chloé was the one to attempt to make awkward conversation between them.

“So,” she started. “You're—you.”

Marinette looked up, surprised. “I—what?”

“Marinette, right?” Chloé asked.

It almost made her laugh. “Yes,” she confirmed, remembering that she'd typed that into Chloé's phone in the first place. “And you're Chloé.”

“Right.” Chloé bobbed her head in a slow nod. “It's weird. I'd never have expected that to be your name.”

She didn't know whether to take that badly or not. “Thanks?”

“It's nice.”

“I'll be sure to tell my parents that,” she remarked.

There was a pause.

Then, what came out of Chloé's mouth wasn't expected at all. “You're like, like, a child, right?”

Marinette was incredulous as she asked, “I'm sorry, what?”

“You look young,” was Chloé defence. “Because I really don't want to befriend some kid.”

That really did make her laugh. “I'm nineteen.”

Chloé's posture relaxed. “Fucking great.”

It got better from then on.

Chloé pointed out all the shops she wanted to go in, not asking for Marinette's opinion on them, and she started to pass clothes to her, picking some out for both of them to try on. It wasn't really an experience Marinette had had before, one that she hadn't shared with friends growing up, and she felt out of place quite often.

But when Chloé gestured to herself, not quite voicing aloud that she wanted Marinette's opinion, she felt more welcomed.

It was a nice day after that.

She got to know Chloé more, realising that she was very blunt in what she had to say, didn't care whether she was being too loud with her opinions, and her sense of humour always managed to surprise her throughout the day.

It was a lot better than the odd looks she'd gotten at work from her.

Chloé was actually really nice.

Well, not that nice, but she was nice to spend time with.

Marinette had two bags when they took the train back.

When it came time for them to part ways, to go in different directions, Chloé surprised her by saying that she wanted a picture of them together.

It wasn't a question, of course.

They were pressed close together, Marinette awkwardly holding up her hand in a peace sign as she smiled, and Chloé had to hold the camera higher to clearly get the both of them in the picture.

It came out nice.

Then, Chloé asked, “Which account do you want me to tag?”

Her stomach felt tight. “What?”

Chloé wasn't deterred. “Personal or not?”

It was astounding how quickly the pleasant warm feeling of befriending someone new could leave her so fast. In a matter of seconds, as she processed the words that were said, her mouth felt dry as she stared up at Chloé, not even realising that that had been a thing happening throughout the day.

She thought that the first time she'd be recognised for her stream, someone would actually acknowledge her as Ladybug.

But Chloé hadn't mentioned a thing.

She hadn't—

Chloé hadn't really spoken to her until her hair was pink, had she?

Her thoughts were whirring.

“Ladybug one,” she choked out.

Chloé's nails made noises as she typed.

Her stomach churned uncomfortably along with every passing second.

She didn't check whether Chloé had listened and tagged the right account when she got home.

She really didn't know what to think.

Did Chloé only think she was worth her time after confirming she was Ladybug? If she recognised her before—back when her hair was dark—then, why hadn't she approached her? It didn't make much sense to her.

The pink hair was distinctive, she knew that. She would've been wary of walking up to someone that she knew from the internet—but if they served her almost weekly at a café, the chances of her talking to them would've gone up considerably.

Maybe, just maybe, it had taken Chloé months to get to that point.

So, she put it out of her mind.

It was fine.

Chloé didn't text her again.

Marinette didn't reach out to her.

That was just how things went sometimes.

When she did see the picture for the first time, the same cold feeling spread through her body, a feeling of dread becoming apparent.

It wasn't because it came out badly; rather, it was a really beautiful picture, one that she'd be happy to use as her icon due to how pretty she looked in it.

But it was Adrien's words that had her staring down at her phone.

That was his best friend, Chloé. The one that tried to hide from him that she liked the game, didn't talk about it openly, and was one of the best things in his life.

It made her feel kind of gross.

She went to the post herself, clicking on Chloé's profile.

Each photo was well-timed, made whoever was in it look beautiful, and it didn't take long to scroll down to Adrien's familiar face.

“Oh,” was all she could say to herself.

It was easy to forget about it.

When Chloé messaged her the following day, she didn't reply to it because she was at work, and by the time she remembered later on at night, she figured that it was too late.

She was preoccupied with Juleka implying in the chat that Marinette knew Ladybug intimately.

It was so hilariously dumb.

As much as she wanted to give everything private, it wasn't—it didn't feel too intrusive to let Juleka slowly out her instead. She knew that Juleka would never go too far, that she wouldn't hurt her, and the outcomes thus far had been close to hysterical, especially with everyone's reactions.

Adrien was so-very-happy with that reveal, too.

He was really cute.

She still found it hard to connect his happy personality to his appearance.

He was also able to tell that there was something wrong with her mood after she went shopping with Chloé—even though she lied and said that she'd cancelled, and that it hadn't happened—and instead of pressing her to tell him what was wrong, he tried his best to cheer her up.

And it worked.

He was so positive.

Marinette was envious of that.

Chloé walked into the store the following week, sunglasses perched on top of her head, and a short skirt on with lavish sandals that looked far too nice to be worn for any long duration of time.

Of all the things that could've been said first between them after a week of silence, Chloé opened with, “You're avoiding me.”

Marinette pursed her lips, stopping herself from saying something sarcastic.

She still felt bitter.

She'd thought that they could've genuinely been friends, that their chemistry had been good after they'd gotten to talking, but to learn that it could've only been because of who she was online was disappointing.

It wasn't as though she could ask outright, was it?

“Why?” Chloé asked.

Instead, Marinette fiddled with her half-apron as she replied, “I've been busy.”

It wasn't really a lie.

Chloé's gaze flickered down to where she was touching her apron before she enquired, “When are you free?”

And wasn't that just what she didn't want to hear?

Bluntly, she questioned, “Is this just so you can post pictures online?”

Chloé looked surprised at that, and then it was her struggling for the right words as she stuttered, “You—what?”

Marinette gestured to her hair. “Is this because I'm Ladybug or what?”

“...You are Ladybug, yes,” Chloé said slowly.

“But you never spoke to me before,” she insisted. “Not until I dyed my hair. What's up with that?”

Chloé frowned. “Because I didn't want to.”

It was such a strange response. “Then, why do you now?”

“Because,” Chloé started before closing her mouth, clearly thinking about her answer. “I understand what—you know, how it is for people to recognise you. And you seem tolerable.”

There was something so weird about the way Chloé phrased things. Marinette wasn't sure whether she was actually going to get an apology, whether Chloé would tell her to fuck off and stop being so stuck up, or something different entirely.

So, she settled with not saying anything.

“I won't post anything, if you want,” Chloé offered.

Marinette pursed her lips.

Then, before Chloé could say anything else, another customer came in. Chloé moved to the side to make room, standing there quietly and not interrupting, and it was only when the customer left with their order that she moved back to stand by the counter.

The answer had been good enough.

Marinette prompted her with, “Why now?”

Chloé shrugged. “Why not?”

“That's not a good answer,” she voiced aloud.

“Because you seemed cool before you decided to be so weird about all this,” Chloé stated, reaching up and adjusting her sunglasses on top of her head. “Do you want to be friends or not, Marinette? Because if you say no, I'm still coming back here to torture you.”

She cracked a smile at that.

There was something charming about how blunt Chloé was.

“I'll consider it if you don't buy anything today,” she bargained.

“Yeah, no,” Chloé said instantly. “I'm here for a reason—other than seeing why you're being so emo, of course.”

Taking a leaf out of Luka's book, she sighed and replied, “Frick.”

-x-

 **lbug13**  
_(image: marinette with icing on the end of her nose)_  
Liked by **amitsu1337** , **lookam3** , **chloéb** , and **154 others**

 **lbug13** thanks for the birthday wishes!

 _View 255 comments_  
**lekaleka** birth  
**roseandpose** birth!

-x-

What she considered to be a birthday party was her, Luka, and Juleka going out for dinner.

But when they'd seen how busy the restaurant was, they opted to go to a pub and have drinks instead. They found one nearby that wasn't too busy, didn't have obnoxious music, and Luka went off to buy their first set of drinks.

Juleka bought their second round.

They'd found a table in the corner, the three of them happily sitting close together, and her cheeks had started to hurt from laughter before they'd even touched the second drink.

It was a really fun time.

Especially when Juleka decided that if she used Marinette's phone, the others in the group chat wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

They'd had more than a bit to drink by that point, and it really didn't seem like a bad idea. They all knew that Marinette knew Juleka at that point, didn't they? And there wasn't any reason _not_ to show that—not when she was her best friend.

“Sure,” Marinette said, not quite believing her as she passed her phone over.

Juleka brushed her hair over her shoulder. “Just watch.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

It was a matter of minutes for her to be proved right.

Luka laughed at Juleka pouting, reaching over and patting the top of her head. “There, there,” he comforted her, but it was more for his amusement than anything else. “You'll get there someday.”

“I really hope you don't,” Marinette muttered as she took her phone back.

Somehow, it evolved into them asking whether Ladybug was there, too.

She burst out into laughter.

“Well, you're not wrong,” Luka said, lifting up his glass and raising it to her before taking a sip. “Your friends are idiots, Mari.”

Juleka choked out a laugh. “It's so _fun_.”

“Isn't it a little mean at this point?” Marinette asked, tapping away at her screen. “Like, I doubt they'd even believe me if I came clean at this point.”

Juleka snickered. “Because Ladybug's almost your girlfriend to them.”

“Not _that_ far,” she pointed out.

Then, Luka and Juleka started to bicker with each other, the topic of the not-so-fight flying over her head. So, instead of telling them to stop, she sipped at her drink and watched them, mostly paying attention to her phone.

She tried to see how fooled they really were by saying she was Ladybug.

But, instead of questioning it, they thought she'd actually passed her phone to her, just like with Juleka all those minutes ago.

Her laughter was a little hysterical from the mixture of exasperation and alcohol.

It was just her luck, wasn't it? Encouraging Juleka's fun resulted in her being a separate entity to her actual self—and wasn't that strange to think about?

And they didn't even want to talk to Ladybug.

They wanted Marinette.

And that was even more hilarious.

She put her phone down, being the one to buy the next round of drinks. Luka had stumbled and joined her at the bar, throwing an arm around her shoulders, saying that he was worried when she'd disappeared, only because he hadn't seen her go.

“Idiot,” she said, ever-so-fondly.

He beamed.

The night was still fun.

She wasn't so sobered up when she got home, meaning she had to cancel her plans with Adrien. He wasn't mad about it, though; he was happy that she had fun going out, encouraging her to drink some water before going to bed.

He was really sweet.

And the first person to meet him was Nino.

Nino, who she couldn't remember the face of, also made a point to ask whether she wanted to come along, and even contemplated asking Juleka (who was still not interested in meeting any of them).

But along with the invitation came an apology from Nino, one where he was sincere that he'd never meant to hurt her by being mean about her friend, Ladybug, and that he didn't have anything against it.

That made her laugh again.

But the apology was appreciated, really. She'd never thought that he'd come outright and say it, or that he'd come to her instead of Juleka, but she thought it was nice of him.

What wasn't as appreciated, however, was him supporting her flirting with Ladybug.

It sounded so ridiculous to her.

But he wasn't going to believe that she was Ladybug without real proof, was he? Although she'd gotten an apology from him, she wasn't that comfortable revealing herself properly, not when it would put the both of them in an awkward situation.

There wasn't much harm in continuing the lie, was there?

And if she had a little fun in teasing them that she was almost dating Ladybug, that was just a plus, something to amuse herself—and Juleka, of course.

That came along with her paying Nathaniel to draw emotes for her stream. He thought that she was just paying for a surprise for her friend, and she wasn't going to correct him on that.

It was just—it was so _unbelievable_.

So, when Alya mistakenly thought that Marinette really was dating Ladybug, and seemed so excited from it, she didn't correct her.

In fact, Marinette might've leaned into it, sure that her sarcasm wasn't being picked up.

It got a little out of hand.

She might've had a little too much fun with it.

Since the option of saying her name was Marinette on stream wasn't a viable one—she was happy just being Ladybug there—and she couldn't just take a picture of her holding a piece of paper with her name on it, it only left meeting up to clear the air, didn't it?

It was funny at first, when they all thought she was in love with herself, but the joke got old quickly.

Especially since no one _believed_ her.

And she didn't blame them, not at all. It was her fault for encouraging Juleka at first, and then even joining in, making it even worse. There was a time for fun and jokes, but when she got used to referring to herself in third person, that was when it got weird.

Really, really weird.

It was just her nerves holding her back, wasn't it? She doubted that they would hate her for it, not when they were good friends.

That really wasn't going to happen.

They could be annoyed, yes—but they'd understand her reasons for being private, wouldn't they?

There was only one other person that knew that she was Ladybug in person, and Chloé didn't seem to be disappointed at all. Considering that they'd started texting again, their small talks in the store becoming more animated, there wasn't any bad feelings there.

Chloé had even called her outfit passable the other day.

Chloé was the type of person to be blunt about what she thought—so, wouldn't she say if Marinette was boring?

Thinking like that was a little bit of an ego boost.

The best option was to start from the beginning—the first person, so to speak.

She asked Nino when he was working.

He didn't suspect much, hadn't even thought to ask if she needed directions to his workplace before she'd already started walking towards it.

It would be fine. She'd thought about all the options, what exactly to say, and what would happen for a few days, ever since Nino had confirmed that it was his first day back to work when she was visiting. It wouldn't matter that she barely remembered what he looked like, would it?

She only had pictures of Adrien and Nathaniel saved on her phone.

He was tall with glasses, that was what she had to recognise him with.

She tucked some of her pink hair behind her ear.

There was no chance he wouldn't recognise her, was there? Not when Adrien liked to post screenshots of her stream into their group chat, or Juleka sharing countless ones just to make Adrien excited and happy.

It did make her feel a little warm from all the praise at those times.

The door creaked as she opened it.

Her stomach tightened from nerves when she realised that the employee behind the counter didn't have glasses on.

“Hi, welcome!” the male greeted her, only just lifting his head up after saying that. Then, there was clear surprise written across his expression, unmistakable. “What—what can I do for you?”

No glasses.

“I...” Marinette started, trailing off as she cleared her throat, stepping closer to the counter. “I was wondering if Nino's in today?”

“I'm Nino?” It came out sounding like a question, and his brow furrowed. “I mean, yeah. That's me.”

It wasn't her best moment as she blurted out, “But—you haven't got glasses.”

He just looked bewildered. “Contacts exist?”

“Oh.”

Then, they just stared at each other for a moments.

It was undeniably awkward.

His hair was dark, as dark as hers had been before she bleached and dyed it, and he was tall and thin, from what she could see from his work uniform. It wasn't what she'd expected for him; then again, all she'd had to go on was spectacles—ones he wasn't even wearing.

“...So,” Nino started, drawing out the vowel. “What are you doing here?”

She jumped at that, fumbling for the right words. “I—well... I'm here to see you?”

He blinked. “Okay?”

It wasn't going at all how she thought it would.

She took in a sharp breath. “I'm Marinette.”

He was startled at that. “I'm sorry?”

“Marinette,” she repeated, even going as far as to point her index finger at her face. “I was just—I didn't want to be known? That sounds kind of stuck up—well, really stuck up—but it was nice to just be a newbie to you, you know?”

Slowly, Nino replied, “You're... Marinette?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed, quiet. “That's me.”

His expression was blank for a few seconds.

Then, he let out a audible breath, hands on the counter while he leaned back, staring at her as he flatly asked, “I'm sorry, what?”

She winced. “Hi?”

“You're—you're Marinette,” Nino started, sounding as incredulous as his expression looked. “But you're—you're supposed be, like, dating you.”

“That's where you're going with this?” Marinette replied, voice higher-pitched from usual due to the mixture of panic and nerves. “Not that I've been lying to you?”

He ran a hand through his short, curly hair. “I mean, this was a lie, too.”

“I'm really sorry about that,” she said, reaching up and fiddling with her earring. “I didn't—it wasn't supposed to evolve into that, but everyone just kept believing me, so I had some fun with it.”

To her surprised, he shuddered in an exaggerated way. “I really didn't need to know about your self-love.”

She wetted her lips. “Are you mad at me?”

“No, dude,” Nino quickly assured her, a startled laugh escaping him. Then, his voice was high as he continued on to say, “What? No. I don't entirely get it, but you're actually here right now? I never thought I'd see the day that you'd say hi to me.”

Her shoulders relaxed. “Really?”

“Yeah, Mari,” he said, and the sound of him actually saying her nickname—the one he always referred to as online—was such a relief. “Quick question, though. Did everyone else know and you were just fucking with me, or what?”

Shaking her head, Marinette confessed, “Only Juleka, I promise. I thought—it seemed like a good idea to come to you first.”

There was a pause.

“You know I never hated you, right?” Nino asked.

She cracked a smile. “Yeah, I know.”

“Really,” he emphasised. “It was just fun to rile the others up with it—it wasn't as though I meant everything.”

Nonetheless, it was sweet for him to clarify that. “Yeah, I get you,” she said. “Why else do I think I pretended to date myself?”

“Pretended?” Nino questioned, raising his eyebrows. “It's present tense. You still are, you know.”

“...For now.”

-x-

 **bugaloo** @ladybugimon **·** Oct 03  
@chloéb33 can you stop harassing me pls

 **chloe with an accent** @chloéb33 **·** Oct 03  
@ladybugimon look at ur phone then loser

 **bugaloo** @ladybugimon **·** Oct 03  
@chloéb33 no I muted it because it wouldn't shut up

 **chloe with an accent** @chloéb33 **·** Oct 03  
@ladybugimon why do u think that is idiot

-x-

She had a bit of a problem.

It came in the form of a child's typing, but the personality of someone so-very-endearing that she hadn't quite realised that her feelings were growing until it literally caught her by surprise when she smiled so widely just from seeing a new picture of his cat.

It shouldn't have happened at all, but it did.

Marinette wasn't an idiot.

She knew that she was close to Adrien, that she was quickly considering him one of her closest friends, but she hadn't quite grasped that she was thinking of him as more than that—wanting that. That the pictures of him that he sent her could've been saved for something more than trying to recognise him on the street if they so happened to have crossed paths, or that she wanted to see more in his sweet messages.

They got a bit flirty at times, but she wasn't reading too much into them.

There wasn't any reason to.

Adrien had stated himself that when he flirts, it's always abundantly obvious and hard to ignore since he was so disastrous at it.

The main problem she had was that Adrien was under the impression that she was dating someone—someone that he adored, actually, so that would make it even worse if she lied and said that they'd broken up.

She really wasn't ready to meet him.

It would've already been hard enough with him being so close to her, but with her lingering feelings that were becoming more and more apparent? She definitely didn't want to face him any time soon.

Chloé, however, didn't take no for answer.

 **(09:28) from chloé:  
** _come to my halloween party_

 **(09:30) to chloé:  
** _maybe_

 **(09:35) from chloé:**  
_u better fucking come  
or im going to leak all ur info _

**(09:39) to chloé:**  
_do it  
pussy_

She was considering it.

With Nino knowing who she really was, he accidentally blurted it out to Alya.

Alya admitted that she was sad that Marinette hadn't hold her herself, but she understood. Then, she joined in the joke of Marinette dating herself while the others were all unaware, while Marinette tried to do her best to say that she wasn't dating her—but it wasn't very effective.

It did result in Adrien giving her his number, though.

She smiled so widely at that.

Juleka broke her self-imposed rule of not meeting anyone by choosing Nino to be her first.

Well, it was more like Marinette had planned for Nino to come over to her apartment to visit, and she hadn't really thought about clarifying that with Juleka when she'd gotten a text that said that she was coming over.

Nino's first reaction to seeing her was to stand up quickly and ask whether he could hug her.

Juleka grunted when she was squeezed tightly.

It was such a comical sight—that they were both so tall, equally as skinny, but Nino clearly looked overjoyed to finally hug her while Juleka was trying to squirm away from him—that Marinette took a picture of the two of them, immediately sending it to Luka.

 **(13:27) from luka:**  
_Im so proud  
shes finally got friends _

It made her laugh.

When she went to Rose to get her roots bleached and the pink re-dyed, Juleka came along, and they made an evening of it. Rose even gave her some pyjamas to wear to be more comfortable, and she really did end up sleeping on the sofa and regretting it.

She didn't regret Juleka convincing her that the easiest way to meet everyone from the chat would be to meet them all at once.

Ripping off the plaster, she'd said.

It sounded a lot scarier than one-on-one, but better. It would mean seeing Alya and Nathaniel at the same time, when they lived two hours away, and a group meet-up wasn't asking for too much, was it?

So, they agreed to meet up with dinner the upcoming month.

But Chloé's party came before that.

Luka wasn't by her side, Juleka hadn't been invited, and she was walking through the streets towards Chloé's family hotel while wearing an over-the-top outfit of a character from an animated show that she liked, aware of the strange stares she was getting along the way. She'd gone a little overboard, wanting it to look nice, and she had no doubts that Chloé would drag her into pictures.

She'd felt confident until she saw the hotel in front of her.

She took her phone out of her pocket.

 **(19:25) to adrien:  
** _I'm coming in now_

 **(19:25) from adrien:**  
_!_  
oh my god!  
ok ok i'm coming to the door!

She smoothed out her hair.

Even with it being dark outside—and chilly, so she regretted not wearing a coat on top of her outfit—it was easy to recognise Adrien when he stepped outside. The outfit he had on was tight, highlighting his figure well, and his height made him easy to pick out against the others that were standing by the doors.

He had his phone in his hand, glancing down at the screen before looking around some more, his eyes not looking her way.

And when they did, she could visibly see him looking surprised before his gaze went back to his device, quickly tapping away on it.

She glanced down at her own.

 **(19:29) from adrien:**  
_where are you?_  
i don't even know what i'm looking for  
not that you're a what!  
i mean your outfit  
you know?

She smiled fondly at that.

He looked like his pictures; the blond-coloured hair, the sharp angles of his face, and even the furrow of his brow as he looked down at his phone, something she'd seen on Chloé's profile before.

That wasn't weird.

Her heels made noise as she came to stand in front of him, her phone already back in her pocket, and she reached up to self-consciously touch her earring as he announced herself with, “Hi.”

Adrien was befuddled as he looked at her. “I—Ladybug?”

There hadn't even been any hesitation of him recognising her, no second-guessing, and it showed how familiar he was with her face that he called out her username in a matter of seconds.

It made her face feel warm.

“Marinette,” she introduced herself, hand falling down to her side. “I'm sorry it took so long to tell you.”

His face didn't fall, there was no flicker of betrayal, no negative emotion—instead, Adrien's mouth stretched into a large grin, dimples becoming apparent on his cheeks, and he visibly brightened up as he asked almost breathlessly, “Mari?”

She smiled shyly. “Yeah.”

“Oh,” he breathed. “Oh. I—oh, gosh.”

It was such a silly reaction that she couldn't help but laugh, raising her hand to cover her mouth.

“I was not expecting this,” he continued, his eyes wide, the smile still on his lips. “It's—it's really you.”

She was definitely blushing by that point. “I'm sorry—”

“No, no,” he interrupted, enthusiastically waving his hands around to back up his words. “Please, don't apologise. This—this is—I can't even say.”

It was clear that his reaction was positive, and that was making her even happier. Why had she been so nervous to meet him?

But when he looked at her with that bright smile, she started to understand again.

She swallowed.

Taking inspiration from Nino, she asked, “Can I hug you?”

Adrien nodded quickly. “Oh, hell yes.”

And as she laughed, she stepped into his outstretched arms, hooking her own around his waist, feeling especially small as he gently hugged her, clearly trying not to touch her too much.

Even that was endearing.

She squeezed his waist. “I'm so happy you're here.”

When he laughed, she could feel it. “I should be saying that to you.”

She was glad that he couldn't see her face at that moment. She was resting her cheek against his chest, grinning widely, as she announced, “I promise I'm not really dating Ladybug.”

Adrien's laugh was almost breathless that time. “Thanks for clearing that up.”

The embrace lasted a lot longer than it should've, but she didn't have any complaints when they pulled away from each other. Adrien noticed the bumps on her skin from the cold when he glanced down to her almost bare arms, ushering her inside to a room where the music was loud, and there were loads of people in various different costumes that she didn't recognise.

She was mostly focused on his hand being wrapped loosely around her wrist to guide her through.

He sat in the stool beside her at the bar, his hands no longer touching her.

She didn't order anything alcoholic at first, and neither did he.

“Have you been here long?” she questioned before wincing.

Adrien grinned. “You already know the answer to that.”

And she did, as he'd been texting her throughout the day, updating her on what was happening. It was a stupid question to say, but her heart was fluttering nervously, and she really wanted not to make an ass of herself.

Adrien didn't even look nervous.

“Yeah,” she agreed, reaching up and tucking some loose strands behind her hair. “But I don't really know what to say right now.”

He had the audacity to wink and ask, “Am I making you speechless?”

A startled laugh escaped her as she stuttered out, “Excuse me?”

“Sorry, that was lame,” Adrien admitted, running a hand through his own hair, revealing more of his forehead for a moment before it fell back down. “I just really want to impress you right now and I don't know how.”

A bit surprised, she questioned, “Impress me?”

“Well, yeah,” he said, a bit meeker than before. “You're—you.” And that was emphasised with him gesturing towards her. “And I feel so—so happy that you're here with me, but I don't really... compare to you?”

She wetted her lips. “I think you're amazing.”

His voice was higher-pitched than before. “You do?”

“Why else would I be here?” Marinette shot back. “Chloé did badger me, but I'm not comfortable with crowds. I really am just here to see you, you know.”

She could see it as he swallowed. “But... we are still meeting up for dinner, aren't we?”

Marinette shyly admitted, “That's not—not just us.”

“Oh,” was what he said to that, quietly repeating it again under his breath.

She averted her gaze, focusing on her drink as she took a nervous sip of her. It wasn't the clammy hands type of nerves; it was more than she wanted him to like her, to prefer the Marinette he'd met online more than the personality that he watched. And if it was possible, she would've liked for him to voice that aloud.

But actually asking him that was out of the question.

Adrien had to lean forward for her to hear him softly say, “Thank you for coming.”

She was turned around in the stool to face him by that point, sure that her smile was reaching her eyes, and she couldn't help but let out a laugh as she stated, “I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.”

He beamed.

It didn't go downhill from there, not at all.

They chatted for a while, much like they would've typed, just talking about random things. Marinette was actually able to see his reactions to her comments, to see him laugh—full on with his shoulders shaking—and it was the best response she'd ever gotten to her bad jokes before. And to see him sag against the bar, resting an elbow on it and putting his head onto his palm, his body tilted towards her and giving her his full attention, made her chest fill with a warm feeling that she didn't want to get rid of.

She wondered how she looked to him, dressed in her ridiculous costume.

He made his look lovely.

The reason they finally started to drink alcohol was because Chloé trotted over, pushing between them and putting herself on Adrien's lap.

“Marinette,” she greeted, completely blanking Adrien, and going as far as to toss her blonde hair over her shoulder, almost hitting him in the face. “I see you made it. Thank you for not responding to my texts, asshole.”

“Oh.” She blinked. “I—sorry, I got distracted.”

Chloé sniffed. “By this idiot?”

“The one you're currently ignoring?” Adrien quipped.

He was blanked further.

Chloé squinted at her. “He's not, like, trying to hit on you or anything, is he?”

Adrien choked.

A startled laugh escaped her. “No, he's not,” Marinette assured her. “We kind of know each other already.”

Chloé raised her eyebrows. “All right, whatever. I'm paying for your drinks, so you better have something less vanilla when I'm back over here next.”

And with that, Chloé hopped down from Adrien's lap, raising her hand and patting his cheek in such a ridiculous way that Marinette couldn't help but laugh, and then she walked off as though nothing had happened.

Adrien almost looked like he was pouting.

“Good friend,” Marinette commented, her smile reaching her eyes. “I'd do the same to Luka, the cheek pat and all.”

He jutted out his lower lip. “Awful friend.”

“The best,” she corrected.

“If he has to put up with that, I feel sorry for Luka,” Adrien remarked.

She grinned. “He loves it.”

They did start drinking after that, even after Marinette admitted that she wasn't very good at holding her alcohol. Adrien confessed that he was much the same, usually going for the weaker drinks, and it resulted in them both going for the same things, matching each other to see who was worse.

While she had been turned in the stool to face him before, she'd scooted closer, making it so their knees were touching, and at one point, Adrien had even put a hand on her knee before he stood up to excuse himself quickly.

They were just as close when he came back.

Things started to get blurry then, but it was filled with laughter, Adrien's bright smile, and conversations that she couldn't quite remember.

There was no denying her attraction to him after that.

-x-

 **lbug13**  
_(image: marinette with her head resting on someone's shoulder)_  
Liked by **lookam3** , **chloéb** , **aedrienxo** , and **201 others**

 **lbug13** first time I've dressed up for halloween in years

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**kialyn** who is that?  
**aedrienxo** nice outfit!

-x-

Nathaniel wasn't in person.

Rather, it was from showing him a picture and admitting it, and he teased her about him drawing her own face for her emotes. It was a silly situation, they both knew that, but Nathaniel didn't blow up at her about it.

None of them did.

It wasn't a big deal to them, not really; it was just her admitting more about herself, admitting that she'd played a joke on them that had gotten a bit out of hand.

She was so fucking relieved that they still liked her.

Adrien still liked her so much that after one of her shifts at work, he actually waited outside to go to lunch with her.

She had coffee splattered on her shirt, didn't feel too put-together, but when he looked at her with such a wide smile, she forgot those worries.

“Pretty girl,” he greeted her.

Marinette pushed him away without much force. “Stop bringing that up!”

“I can't believe I didn't think about whether you'd be this pretty or not,” he said with a laugh, holding up his hands in a sign of surrender. “I have to get used to it, okay? Your smile is crazy.”

There was a difference between typing those type of things compared to actually saying them face-to-face.

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” Despite her response, she could feel her face growing warm. “Because I really can't tell with you.”

“Oh, it's definitely a compliment,” Adrien replied, not sounding embarrassed in the slightest. “I've always told you that you're pretty, haven't I? I just didn't know it was you.”

She put her hands on her cheeks. “Stop.”

“Aren't you shy?” he cooed, falling in step beside her as they slowly walked down the street.

“It's different in person!” Marinette defended, letting her hands fall down and stuffing them into the pockets of her coat. “It's—aren't you embarrassed about saying things like that?”

He just smiled. “That you're pretty?”

“Yes, that.”

“But it's the truth,” he answered. “I'm not going to stop until you believe me.”

She let out an audible breath. “I believe you!”

He hummed. “Do you?”

“I do,” Marinette insisted, shyly averting her gaze and looking at the street instead. “It's just—I don't know.”

But she did know.

She couldn't just come out and say that it made her feel flattered and enamoured with him all at once, not when she was trying to just be friends. There wasn't any reason for her to admit her feelings, not when their friendship was only just beginning in person, and she didn't want to ruin that any time.

Besides, he'd never admitted to having a crush on her as Ladybug, so why would her as Marinette be any different?

It was still weird to think of herself as two separate beings at time.

Adrien softly confessed, “I still mean everything I say online.”

There was so much she could've said to that, could've jumped to different conclusions, but she chose to respond with an ill-timed joke of, “Well, you've admitted a lot of weird things to me.”

“True,” he agreed easily, nodding his head.

Rather than sitting across from her at the café they went to, he chose to be beside her instead. It would've been a lie to say that it didn't make her feel happy that he wanted to be so close to her.

She still didn't have clammy hands.

She felt shy, yes, but not terribly nervous. She didn't think too much about what he would think about her, not when they knew each other so well from talking online, and it became apparent that even without alcohol, they could get along easily in person.

Marinette was absolutely besotted.

When he tried to call her pretty again, she'd responded that she thought he was beautiful—had from the first picture—and the colour that had flooded his cheeks was wonderful to look at.

And for her to be the cause of that made her wonder whether he wasn't used to receiving such compliments in person. He had said that his pictures on Chloé's account got positive attention, but, maybe, that didn't mean that someone told him face-to-face.

It was her goal to make him comfortable with compliments.

Afterwards, when they'd paid for their meal, Adrien even went as far as to walk her home.

It wasn't until they were near her building that he admitted, “I live the opposite way.”

She looked at him, wide-eyed. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Adrien confirmed, a hand reaching up to touch the nape of his neck, fiddling with the hairs there. “I just... I wanted to see you home, that's all.”

That was incredibly touching in itself, but the shy smile that appeared on his lips made it even better.

“Oh.” Her heart was thudding in her chest. “I—thank you, Adrien.”

He smiled brightly at that, it reaching his green-coloured eyes. “It was my pleasure.”

He ushered her in with an universal gesture of his hands, but she didn't move to walk in through the front door of her building.

Instead, Marinette gathered up the courage to ask, “Can I hug you?”

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Of course.”

It wasn't as awkward as their first, and he was the one to gently squeeze her that time.

Her face felt hot as she pulled way. “Thanks for today.”

“We could—” Adrien started, cutting himself off to clear his throat. “If you wanted to, we could do this again in the future?”

The fact that she could hear how his voice changed at the end there was astounding.

“Please,” she said, ever-so-softly.

When she did get asked on a date, it wasn't who she wanted it to be with.

 **(20:18) from chloé:  
** _pls_

 **(20:20) to chloé:**  
_no_  
what the fuck  
stop asking

 **(20:24) from chloé:  
** _be a good friend_

She agreed to go on a double-date with Chloé, but it had to be pushed back a little due to the dinner she'd planned with the other members of the group chat.

Chloé was busy that day.

It didn't mean she didn't send a lot of angry emojis, though.

It was the first time she was going to Nino's home, but the difference was that she wasn't alone that time. Juleka had agreed to come, standing beside her and looking stoic, not the nerve-riddled person that Marinette was at that moment.

But Nino would be there, and so would Adrien.

The difference in her mood when she realised that Adrien would be there was amazing.

He probably didn't even realise how happy he made her.

Nino had a phat on, covering his curls, when he opened the door.

Juleka sidestepped his hug, moving to stand behind Marinette, but it was ruined by the difference in their heights.

Nino openly laughed at that. “You're the last to arrive, my dudes.”

Quietly, Marinette announced, “We brought some drinks.”

They were non-alcoholic.

Nino grinned at that. “An acceptable reason to turn up late. I'll accept it.”

He took the bags out of both of their hands, able to carry them easily, and Marinette wasn't sure whether to take her shoes off when they stepped into the home. There weren't other pairs of shoes on the mat, but it felt awkward to walk through the house with them on.

Juleka hadn't taken hers off, so she copied her.

Walking into the living room found the others sat on different sofas and chairs, their positioning making it obvious who was more comfortable with each other.

Alya—a pretty red-head with thick spectacles on and a bright smile—was sat beside who couldn't have been any one other than Nathaniel, who was looking down at his phone.

Alya elbowed his side hard enough to make him yelp.

Nathaniel looked like his photo. Tall, pale, with red hair that fell to his almost hunched shoulders, and when he looked up, the shy smile on his lips was directed at her.

Just as shyly, she raised up a hand and waved.

It caused some laughter around the room.

Adrien was sat alone on another sofa, with a space clear and open beside him, but Nino quickly took the spot up, settling down with a loud sigh.

She would've liked to sit beside him, but Juleka was just as bad with new people as her.

It took a while for everyone to open up with each other; a few jokes fell flat, conversations abruptly ended, but by the time that they'd finished their food, most of them had opened up.

Marinette stuck with Juleka for the most part, hugging her more often that she should've, and happily shared Nino's duvet with her when it started to get colder.

She had everyone's number in their phone by the end of it.

They didn't stay too late, though. As welcoming as Nino had been, she didn't want to sleep over out of the blue, not when she wasn't completely comfortable with everyone there. It would've felt weird from feeling so nervous to meet them the first time to go to sleep in the same room with a few of them.

“They're not so bad,” Juleka said when they'd left.

Marinette grinned. “Yeah.”

“You're not very discreet, though.”

“Pardon?” she asked, turning to look at her with furrowed eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

Juleka patted the top of her head before walking faster.

“Hey!” Marinette called, jogging a bit to catch up with her. “What?”

“Idiot,” Juleka said, ever-so-fond.

She could accept that for the meantime.

What she couldn't accept, however, was that she was sat beside Chloé for thirty minutes in a restaurant the following afternoon, waiting for their dates to arrive.

“Why did I agree to this?” she moaned, resting her cheek in her palm, elbow on the table. She was sure she looked like she was having the time of her life. “You won't even let us order something to drink first.”

Chloé haughtily raised her chin. “We're waiting.”

“I think we've been stood up,” she pointed out. “Like, I'm sorry if you liked whoever it was, but they're clearly not worth your time if they can't even message you back—”

Clearly not listening, Chloé tapped away at her phone, ignoring her.

They waited for ten minutes more. A waiter had come over to ask whether they were going to order yet, and Chloé had waved them away dismissively, saying that they weren't ready yet, and Marinette felt so mortified that she quickly apologised to the employee, saying that they were waiting for someone.

Chloé cracked a smile at that.

So, clearly, she knew that she was being rude.

When someone finally arrived, it was one person that she wasn't expecting to see at all.

Adrien came into the restaurant, looking around before spotting them at the table—due to Chloé raising a hand to signal him over—and he rushed over to them quickly, coming to stand in front of Marinette, looking a little breathless.

“Are you okay?” he questioned, looking her over.

Other than the handprint that was sure to be visible on her face, she just felt confused. “What?”

“I can take you home, if you're feeling weak,” he offered, talking so fast. “You—you don't think you'll have another one, do you?”

Beside her, Chloé was till tapping away at her phone, purposely not looking up from device.

Marinette furrowed her brow. “What are you talking about?”

“You had a nosebleed?” Adrien replied, confused. “Didn't you?”

She blinked. “No?”

But before either of them could respond, Chloé clapped her hands once to get their attention. She was looking at Adrien as she announced, “Great, you're finally here. Sit down, I'm starving.”

Adrien was startled. “I—what?”

“Did I stutter?” Chloé raised her eyebrows. “Sit down, idiot.”

Marinette's confusion was surely clear on her face.

And when Adrien went to sit down, Chloé shook her head and gestured to the other chair, the one in front of Marinette instead.

It became very clear what was happening in a matter of seconds.

“Chloé—” Marinette started, quiet and baffled. “What are you—why?”

“We're just having lunch together,” Chloé replied, waving her hand dismissively. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “I'm sure.”

Tapping her nails on the table, Chloé asked, “Where's that waiter that looks like he wants to pour food on my lap?”

Aside from the awkward beginning, it was actually quite a nice lunch. Marinette wasn't sure why the theatrics were needed at all; Chloé had said that she needed a female friend to come along with her—even if she wasn't looking for a hook-up or anything—and Marinette had caved after a few days.

If she'd said that the three of them were going to have lunch together in the first place, she wouldn't have been so hesitant.

It became apparent that it was mostly Adrien and Marinette talking, with Chloé being mostly on her phone throughout.

The situation was so ridiculous that she couldn't help but laugh, and Adrien joined in with her, his knees touching hers underneath the table.

She couldn't have been so obvious that Chloé knew about her feelings already, could she? It wasn't as though it was Juleka, who had always seen through her crushes, but she could never really be sure without outright asking Chloé.

She wasn't going to do that.

At least it meant that she'd seen Adrien twice that weekend.

-x-

 **chloéb**  
_(image: adrien and marinette laughing together)_  
Liked by **lbug13** , **aedrienxo** , **ninohoh** , 551 **others**

 **chloéb** nerds

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**aedrienxo** ooooh!  
**shibaiknow** so weird to see

-x-

Her mother thought she was dating someone.

Unfortunately, that someone was Nino.

She choked on her spit, tried to say that he was dating someone else, but her mother had already wandered off after telling her to invite him round for dinner last night.

Everyone found it hysterical, of course.

Even Luka was teasing her about it.

There wasn't any way to stop her mother assuming it, not when she was clearly only doing it because of Marinette's reaction, so she did let her refer to Nino as her boyfriend for a while. Nino constantly referred to himself as it, going as far as to text her in the morning one time.

 **(09:15) from nino:  
** _hello girlfriend_

 **(09:16) to nino:**  
_I'm at work  
fuck off_

 **(09:16) from nino:  
** _so loving_

Nino was just as insufferable at Adrien's birthday party.

It was as big as Chloé's last one, but it was in a higher floor on the hotel, in a big room that Chloé revealed to be her living room. She was more than happy to just put bottles and glasses on the table, the small affair not needing a bar for the four of them.

Marinette was touched that she'd been invited to such an intimate gathering.

Adrien had told her that he wasn't good friends with his class-mates, that Chloé was his best friend, but she'd never expected for her and Nino to therefore be invited to his small birthday party, just for those that were closest to him.

He did complain that he didn't have his cat with them, though.

Chloé smacked his shoulder for that.

He laughed.

Chloé had already cleared it with her beforehand, so the cake was from her parents' store. She'd awkwardly explained to her parents that it was for a friend of hers, so it had his name iced in the middle of it, and she was a little nervous to see how everyone would react to it.

It was a hit, though.

Much like her present, which was a painting of Nino ripping his shirt open with a rose in his mouth, complete with sparkles, that she'd kindly paid Nathaniel for.

Adrien laughed until he had tears in his eyes.

It was definitely worth it when he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close into a hug and telling her just how thankful he was that she was there.

Her cheeks felt warm.

She didn't want to be anywhere else.

After that, there was no denying that Chloé was very aware of her feelings for Adrien. It was made even worse when Chloé started to talk to Juleka about it, calling both her and Adrien idiots, and she really didn't know how to react to her pitiful love-life being talked about so freely when she hadn't been the one to say something in the first place.

 **(17:05) from adrien:  
** _morning pretty girl!_

It was hard to squash her feelings when he sent her messages like that.

It was even harder when he asked her to go over to his to meet his cat, Plagg.

Chloé even gave her tips before she went—well, she _thought_ they were tips. Like saying that Adrien touched his neck and hair when he felt shy, that he liked hugs, and even that he liked her hair when it was in buns.

That last one had to mean that he'd spoken about her before.

It put a spring in her step.

The house was large, he wasn't kidding when he told her that before.

Adrien told her to keep her shoes on, to take them off in his bedroom, and she happily followed in another him. Adrien was animatedly showing her his section of the house, pointing out the nearest bathroom, before ushering her into him bedroom, immediately calling out for his cat.

Who was underneath his duvet, a clear lump to see.

Plagg was a lot cuter in person, and that was saying something. Marinette had always thought he was pretty from the pictures, but to see him interacting with Adrien, purring and clearly happy with the attention made her feel so much fonder of the both of them at once.

It felt even more intimate with her sat bedside Adrien on his bed, Plagg between the two of them.

Plagg was friendly, thankfully. He didn't bite her, shy away from her touch, and was more than happy to flop down onto her lap without any warning.

She looked up at Adrien with wide eyes.

His smile reached his eyes.

There was something more—more special when it was the two of them within a home. There was no Chloé sat beside them awkwardly, no other customers in tables beside them, and when Adrien took her hand to guide her towards the kitchen, she didn't even try and hide her smile at that.

Plagg trotted behind them, jumping up on the countertop of the kitchen immediately, only for Adrien to sigh and pick him up, putting him down on the floor again.

Marinette took over that job when they started cooking.

It had been a joke, a quip in passing, that it would count as a date if he cooked for her, but he wasn't bringing it up, and she didn't want to be the one to make it awkward between them—

That thought was cut off when he smiled softly at her after she'd gently put Plagg onto the floor again, scared of hurting him.

“I think he likes you,” he said.

She beamed. “He's pretty neat.”

“Neat?” Adrien laughed. “Sure, I guess.”

“You're pretty neat, too,” she assured him, patting his arm. “No need to be jealous of your cat.”

With a grin, he asked, “Is that all I am to you? Neat?”

“You're more than that,” Marinette replied, tucking some stray hair behind her ear. “But you already know that, so what's your goal here?”

Adrien winked. “Love and affection?”

It was just him being playful, being the same person he'd always been with her, but she couldn't help but ask, “From me?”

After clearing his throat, focusing for a moment on the vegetables that he was chopping, he replied, “Who else would I want it from?”

She swallowed. “I don't know.”

“Well,” he started, licking his lips. “It's you.”

All she could say to that was, “Oh.”

Was she reading too much into his words? Marinette knew that Chloé was supporting her ridiculous crush, but she hadn't really thought about _why_ that was—

“I really like you,” he blurted.

It was so out of the blue, all she could focus on was, “You have a knife in your hand.”

He blinked.

Then, Adrien put the knife down onto the shopping board, turning to the side to give her his full attention, no longer multi-tasking. “I—is it better now I don't have the knife?”

“Maybe,” she replied, still bewildered. “Just so we're clear here—are you... I mean, are you confessing to me right now?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Yes?”

Again, all that left her was, “Oh.”

Because that was _not_ what she'd expected when she'd agreed to come over to make dinner with him. Adrien had said that he was ridiculously obvious when he was flirting with someone, that he couldn't be subtle, and all she could think was that she hadn't had any idea—

All she'd thought was that they were friends.

And wasn't that something strange to think about?

“...Okay, this is going to be really awkward if you don't like me back,” Adrien quickly babbled, his hands moving in time with his words. “I, well, I thought you did? But now I'm second-guessing that completely, and I'm really sorry if I've made you uncomfortable—”

Plagg chose that moment to jump on the countertop again.

Marinette gently lifted him up, thankful for the small distraction.

Then, as she put the feline on the floor, she straightened up and met his gaze. “No, I—” Marinette paused, exhaling audibly. “I do like you, really. I just—I didn't think you liked me, that's all.”

“ _What_?” he exclaimed, surprise clear in his voice. “How—how could you think that?”

“I don't know,” she said, shifting her weight onto her other foot. “I just... I don't know.”

There was a beat of silence.

Then, Adrien stood up straight, seemingly more confident than before.

“I really like you,” he declared, staring straight at her. “And I... I'd really like it if you'd want to be my girlfriend. We have been on a disastrous date with Chloé, after all.”

She laughed outright at that. “Yes.”

“I'm sorry about that,” Adrien admitted, taking a step closer to her. “That was my fault, but I felt too awkward to tell you that before.”

Surprised, she asked, “Your fault?”

“Yeah.” He touched the nape of his neck. “I—well, I might've been talking to her about you? And she was getting fed up with me pining and doing nothing about it. I think she was trying to help.”

“By sitting at the table with us.”

He winced. “That's Chloé.”

Marinette didn't feel so embarrassed to confess to him, “She... Chloé told me things that you like for today.”

They both laughed at that.

“Are you serious?” Marinette questioned softly. “About wanting to date me.”

“Only if you want to,” Adrien quickly replied. “I don't—I don't want to push you into anything? If you're not sure, that's fine—or even if you want to say no, I'd understand, I swear.”

He seemed to be as bad as her at talking rapidly when he was nervous.

She wetted her lips. “I'd like that.”

Adrien squinted. “...Which option?”

“The being your girlfriend one,” she answered, grinning. “Unless you'd prefer another?”

His smile reached his eyes. “I'm very happy with this one, thank you.”

“Okay,” she said softly

His voice as equally as quiet as he repeated, “Okay.”

Plagg made a high-pitched noise as he jumped onto the counter again.

Marinette felt giddy when they went back to making dinner. For the most part, she was in charge of making sure that Plagg didn't try and get the food, while Adrien chatted excitably to her, clearly happier than before. He constantly kept looking at her, catching her gaze and grinning widely, not giving any words to explain why he'd been looking in the first place, and it made her feel appreciated every time.

It made her wonder how she could've missed his feeling in the first place.

After knowing about it, it was easy to tell; from how close he sat, the way they leaned into each other when they were talking, and even the bumping knees underneath the table.

She felt very stupid for not realising it sooner.

Then again, he wasn't so sure about her own.

Remembering that Chloé was sure to gloat that it was all her doing that they'd managed to end up together, Marinette turned to him and asked, “Want to have some fun?”

“Sure?” Adrien agreed without hesitation, just curious to know what she was talking about.

They agreed to tell Chloé and Juleka first, to see which of them would spill it to the others first.

She bet on Chloé.

-x-

 **Im not luke** @lukame **·** Dec 17  
@ladybugimon will never be my farmer wife now

 **bugaloo** @ladybugimon **·** Dec 17  
@lukame frick u

 **Im not luke** @lukame **·** Dec 17  
@ladybugimon uve grown up so fast and now wont even virtually date me

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](http://xiueryn.tumblr.com) ❤( *ˊᵕˋ)


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